HP Dungeons & Dragons
by Kingdark
Summary: Because of a Freak accident-Harry saves himself&Dudley from being burned alive. To complicate things, they arrive in a magical tower that is very much alive. How will a veteran Dudley &Harry react when they are summoned to the tournament by force?
1. Here we go again!

Chapter has been reviewed and edited **again** on 16/11/201**1 **It's worth rereading it I think

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

**Inspired by:**

**The Elder Scrolls Oblivion**

**Fallout III + expansions**

Short summary:

This happens **before **1991

Harry Potter's home burns down to the ground. Only two badly burned corpses are found with solid evidence that a child had been sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs. Neither of the two children are found and are presumed dead. Only the Goblin bank knew that Harry James Potter wasn't death because if he was then the vault would've gone inactive. When the infamous Tri-wizarding tournament is held at Hogwarts the cup chooses a fourth champion: namely Harry James Potter and his vassals. This occurrence will break the peace within the wizarding world and will make and break factions.

How will the existing factions deal not with 'normal' children but with war veterans?

How will the ministry react?

How will a certain meddling, plotting old man react?

More importantly, how will this shift the balance of the four houses of Hogwarts?

**A question:** The relation between Harry and Dudley are cousins right? So Dudley is Harry's cousin and Harry's cousin is Dudley right? I'm fairly sure that I'm right but I just wanted to be sure.

_**You can't do something original any more these days.**_

_**So don't give me crap 'bout that.**_

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 01:**

_Where are we?_

_The first manipulations are revealed._

_Prologue_

Harry Potter was never truly happy with his home life until the fire broke out that turned his and his cousin's life upside down. Before the fire his life with his aunt and uncle was only tolerable. And his relation with his cousin back then was more of a 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' kind of relation.

His aunt and uncle treated him more like an unwanted house guest turned servant than the son of his aunt's sister. His aunt and uncle never denied him food. They never denied him water or any other essentials. In fact they never even touched him if they could get away with it. Both the good kind of 'touch' like a hug but most definitely the 'bad' kind of touch like a swat on the head if Harry misbehaved.

That didn't meant that they were kind to him. In fact, the verbal abuse that Harry suffered and the fact that they never touched Harry if they could get away with it could be arguable more hurtful and traumatizing than a psychical abusing uncle. Or an aunt for that matter.

But then neither his aunt or uncle knew or cared about the risks that came with 'abusing' a magical child in any way shape or form. In the wizarding world, children were important. They were the next generation and very valuable. Heirs and children were often married of for political gain. Love rarely mattered.

In fact, with some of the more traditional families it was actually scoffed as a weakness. Something to mock.

Witches and wizards lived a lot longer than their muggle counterparts. Centuries longer wasn't unusual for a witch or wizard to become two hundred years old. That was more the norm than an exception. The only reason why there were so few of them left was because of the last two wars. The world war had devastated the magical community just as much as it had the non magical community.'

It was because of this, because of the older generation, while more traditional that the magical community as a whole was going 'down the drain' so to speak. Whole families were slaughtered and once proud bloodlines were forever gone that a seriously far family member could take control.

It was because of the lack of the elderly that tradition was followed so strongly. The elderly knew when to follow tradition and when to 'go with the flow' but the younger generation... They thought that ancient tradition should be followed no matter the evolution outside of it.

Aside from defeating Grindewald the way he did, Dumbledore's age was one of the reason's why he is so respected.

Since witches and wizards lived for centuries **naturally** that is to say without any potions or magical rituals, birth rates weren't where they were supposed to had always been outnumbered. No doubt about it. But now their numbers were ridiculously low. Which brings us back to their long lifespans that didn't help matters at all. Wizards and witches of 'purer' blood began believing in their superiority and without having someone to snap them out of it...

The fact that a witch could only become pregnant at unpredictable times complicated matters even greater.

So having a big family often relied on luck. And having lots and lots of sex. Did I mention that sex was important too? It had been proven though that the amount of times a witch would get pregnant depended on the power of the witch herself and her wizard partner.

The low amount of birth meant that child abuse was rare. It was so rare that it was barely known and accepted for the rare case that it **did** happen.

Muggleborn witches and wizards were often disliked because they were new. They didn't know any of their traditions and often didn't respected them if they did. This resulted in them becoming a second class citizens while the pure blood factions remained firmly in power. Muggleborn witches and wizards were disliked for another reason.

The parents or guardians of said Muggleborn wizards or witches often disliked the fact they were magical. Was it because of religion, jealousy or another reason entirely? That didn't matter all that much except for the fact that It. Did. Happen.

Which was why muggles were looked down upon.

Abuse in pure blood families was rare to the point it just didn't happen. If it did happen in a rare case, then the parent or parents in question were put into prison. When a muggleborn witch or wizard was detected they were carefully monitored by neutral witches and wizards. These men and woman had sworn specific oaths to make sure they did their jobs and prejudice never came into play. At least this was supposed to happen when this organization was created.

At the time that our story takes place? Not so much any more.

But since Harry wasn't a muggleborn child he was never covered. In fact the ministry of magic was completely unaware where Harry James Potter was currently living and had assumed he lived a quiet life with a small wizarding family. Who would never dare to subject him to hatred, dislike or other low life ideals.

When it was revealed that he had been living with his muggle relatives and that the right departments had never even known about it thanks to Albus too many names too remember Dumbledore, the common people demanded action. Albus lost his official positions in the ministry and was 'demoted' to headmaster only. His advice was still requested but people had lost the faith that they had in him before they discovered what happened to the one boy that had destroyed the most feared dark lord in centuries!

Or so it was believed.

Aside the fact that abuse never happened because they were so precious there was another reason that abuse didn't happen. Magical children were powerful. Their emotions were tied in with their magic hence the accidental magic incidents that happened often.

Magical children could lash out and do permanent and embarrassing thing to you... Depending on the severity of the abuse.

When it was revealed to the public that Harry **hadn't** been living with a small wizarding family, and that he had been living with muggles that didn't really want him...

Magic can do a lot of things including recovering memories of corpses if they were recovered quickly enough.

The memories of Vernon and Petunia Dursley only confirmed what ministry specialists had concluded. Harry Potter had lashed out with his magic and had been transported to an unknown location. And it wasn't unusual for their magic to go beyond their current world and into a world beyond. Those unfortunate children either popped up much later or never re-appeared at all.

And the authorities were almost right. The fire broke out during the early evening. Vernon in a bout of endless stupidity which had been conveniently fuelled by lots of alcohol had upped his verbal abuse a notch or two. You can't expect a child younger than eleven to keep handling and ignoring such abuse now could you?

Vernon usually just ignored Harry. Looking at him as an unwanted guest and assigning him chores to keep him out of his sight. It was a way to prevent fights. Vernon wasn't a bad guy, he was just a close minded prick with a crappy childhood of his own and unresolved issues.

The latest abuse had been the last drop in the 'pretend' bucket and Harry's control had snapped like a rubber band that was stretched too thin.

Abusing a magical child wasn't only dangerous for the one doing the abusing, it was also dangerous to the child itself. Because if the child would lash out, it could cause unrepairable damage to his or her magic.

Harry's magic lashed out against his uncle. Harry's desire was to 'shut his abusers up' and to go somewhere where he could be safe and where he could learn.

Harry's magic lashed out, increased the fire to burn even hotter and with more violence and then vanished from the room, taking his cousin Dudley with him. Harry didn't want to be alone and the closest thing he had to a friend was his cousin.

Harry and Dudley were knocked out by the magical transportation. When they reappeared it was in a world that was completely foreign to them. It would have familiar places, names and even popular locations. But the culture, technology and history was **very** different.

A magical Mist had prevented civilizations that lived beneath it to truly develop. It was only the few races and civilizations hat lived above the mist that were known as the most advanced countries in the world. Aside from this, magic was known and widely accepted. Magic users were often respected, hired as local protectors or as mercenaries. They were also a dying breed for still unknown reasons...

Harry and Dudley reappeared in an ancient hidden wizard's tower. One of the last of its kind. This particular tower had existed for centuries. Over the centuries of its existence it had slowly become alive. Aided by its creator it was one of the most fine-tuned magical creations of their world.

The master of this magical tower had been adventuring for centuries. His own magic keeping him alive for centuries already which was made even longer because of his race that lived for a very long as well. The tower's old master had been looting dungeons for a very long time and bring its treasure and lore back to his hideout.

When this Mage had enough of adventuring he began studying seriously for another few centuries before dying from a heart attack. They are just long lived, not immortal.

The dying wish of this old wizard was for the tower to be in tune with magic and to only allow the worthy within its walls...

Anyone that was able to reach his master bedroom would gain control over the tower. He or she would be informed where he had hidden his treasure all over the world but not how to get past the defences. They needed to prove their worth after al. Information is power. That was the motto of this particular Mage.

* * *

><p><span>End prologue<span>

Chapter 01

Harry and Dudley woke up roughly at the same time. Both of them looked around wildly, the fire being the last thing that they remembered. Waking up in a completely different location, in a dirty bedroom that hadn't been visited in a very long time did nothing to sooth their nerves or their tempers.

After a brief yelling match both boys managed to calm themselves down.

Sometimes a shouting match was the perfect thing to get rid of built up frustration. But now?

"Let's not do this now cousin." Harry suggested. "Shouting at each other, especially when we don't know where we are, how we got here and how we get back isn't going to do anything. Take a deep breath, calm down and once we know more about what's going on we can continue this as much as we want." Harry suggested.

Dudley looked like he wanted to argue but when he thought about it he realized that Harry was right. "Al right then." Dudley agreed.

Both boys cautiously explored the room. Looking for clues as to where they were and how they got there in the first place. Neither considered magic an option. Magic didn't exist right? They were old enough to know that by now. They were big boys after all.

"Nothing. Nothing except dust, dirt and more dust!" Dudley exclaimed in annoyance. A glance at his cousin reminded him to keep him temper. His cousin absolutely hated dirty rooms. The only reason he wasn't cleaning already was because he lacked any tools to do so. Dudley knew that Harry had a touch of autism. It was only the lightest form, or so mummy explained it to him. That was the reason why Dudley felt so overprotective of his cousin. He had to protect him. It was his job.

Dudley took a deep breath and searched the available drawers again. Clothes that had been damaged through time, bottles that had once contained something but was now spoiled to the point that it had turned into something akin to stone.

"Let's see what's beyond this room cousin." Dudley suggested. "We can't stick around here forever you know."

Harry nodded to signal his agreement. Dudley was once more reminded that his cousin didn't say much except when it was required. _"Probably because of daddy."_ Dudley thought sadly.

The door opened with firm shove and revealed a dark passageway. Stepping into the room activated the runes carved into the stone. The runes checked the torches in their holders, concluded that they had been destroyed through time and renewed the torches with the magical charge they had available through their down time. After that it was a simple matter of activating the torches.

This of course did not happen unnoticed. And even if Harry tended to say nothing except when it was needed, torches inflaming themselves is something very unusual and something worth commenting on.

"What the hell?" Harry exclaimed. "T-those torches lightened themselves!" The boy nearly shouted.

"Calm down cousin." Dudley said calmly. "It might be a trick to scare us." Even though Dudley was worried himself he tried not to show it.

Harry was glad for his cousin at times like this. While **he** was usually the brain behind their occasional mischief, Dudley was the muscle for sure.

Neither boy said anything after that. They just entered the corridor further. Harry unconsciously followed what he perceived as an itch but was actually the towers wards guiding him to the master bedroom. The tower had been without a master for a very long time. The only advantage of this was that it had been able to stockpile its magical reserves and resources to build minions through alchemy, potions, science and magic.

The tower had been confused at first when it suddenly had two human children appear in one of the V.I.P guest rooms. The tower sensed that the youngest child had a great potential for magic. And it was only because of this that the children wouldn't starve to death because of hunger and thirst. It was the last line of defence that the tower had if an enemy got into the V.I.P guest room floor. Technically this floor could be as big or as small as was needed. But the standard configuration was eight rooms. And since the tower was built in a large circle it wasn't exactly a corridor or a hallway. But because of its magical defences, the outside of the tower didn't really matter.

What mattered was the fact that it **did** appear to be a straightforward hallway. Four rooms on each side with at the end a stairway going down and up. The Tower M.I or Magical intelligence, sealed the stairs down and only left the upside open. It was the only way that it could ensure that it would be able to communicate with the young boy wizard.

Both boys had entered the middle of the passageway by the time that the way down was sealed. The tower had made it appear as if they were on the ground floor. It was the only way that it could convince the two boys to go up the stairs. The windows in the room where they had woken up were sealed and magically reinforced that they could only be opened by the wizard that controlled the wards. And since it's former owner had long since died, and it had only had limited control...

Harry was trying to suppress the urge to scratch an itch he never knew he had. He recognized that he had always felt it but had gotten used to it. But this itch was far stronger and a lot harder to ignore. It was like it was pulling him to the end of the passageway and upwards.

He recognized the feeling from his home but recognized that 'this' feeling was a lot stronger compared to his home.

"Let's do a quick check on the other rooms." Harry suggested. "Not a specific search, just a glance to see if they are more or less the same compared to the other rooms."

'Right.' Dudley agreed. A few minutes later they concluded that the rooms were near identical save a few minor differences like how the room was sorted. A more thorough check just confirmed what they had already known. Nothing was to be found except dirty beds and dust. Lots and lots of dust.

Going down one floor was obviously not an option. That left going up one floor instead. Both boys cautiously went up the stairs one floor until they encountered a door. This door was made out of materials that neither boy recognized. But that wasn't too surprising considering their age and experience in the world. The only thing that they 'knew' about the door was that it was made out of some sort of metal.

Harry cautiously pushed the door open and was immediately attracted by a beautiful shiny Ruby that was resting in on a pedestal in the middle of the room. This Ruby was the representation of the tower itself. It controlled its magical defences, doors, windows it basically controlled everything within its power to control. Should the Ruby be destroyed not only would the tower be returned to a 'normal' tower but it would basically be killed as well. Any form of self awareness that the tower would have gained through its centuries of life would be instantly erased.

Everything that made the tower unique would be gone permanently.

Harry was itching closer to the Ruby step by step. Something was calling to him. A call that he just couldn't ignore. Part of him was screaming and shouting to resist the call but it was ignored and pushed away by his own desire to answer this mysterious pull. Had the master of the tower still lived it would've meant instantaneous death for anyone touching the Ruby in question. But since the tower's master had died centuries before... Not to mention his last wish...

The closer that Harry came, the more that he realized he knew things he didn't know before. He hadn't know that there was a secret passageway to escape in case the tower was invaded. Or that this emergency escape could only be used by the master of the to tower and his most trusted servants.

Harry hadn't known that there was only one more floor going up. Or that the Magical Intelligence that controlled the tower and that was represented by the Ruby in front of him had sealed the stairway going down to force himself and Dudley to go up instead. He hadn't known before that they had **not** been on the second floor at all.

Harry realized that the floor below this one had been a library. And that he jewel 'knew' everything that was in those books. The last thing that Harry realized that the moment he would touch the Ruby he would become the master of the tower. The Ruby would share the most basic knowledge with him so that he could begin his studies on the books on his own.

The M.I could in theory dump its entire database in his mind... brain... head... Eighty percent of the time, the one receiving the knowledge would die. Period.

Of the twenty percent that was left, fifteen would survive but would be completely insane. That left only five percent.

The last five percent represented those that **survived **the procedure **sane** but were forever trapped in the tower itself for one very simple reason. The one receiving the knowledge would have to stay within the towers range. So it most definitely was **not** a good idea to dump its entire database in Harry's consciousness.

The M.I could only share some of its knowledge of the country it was built into. Its language, the culture and the various magic's that were being practised every day. Basic stuff. Limited stuff. Barely a percent of its total database it had **available**.

But something was still stopping Harry to touch the Ruby. Harry's thoughts went to Dudley. What would happen to him? If only Harry understood the language and its culture... Not to mention its **magic...** A fact that Harry had trouble believing. He was old enough to realize that magic didn't exist. And yet, the stuff he now 'knew' through memories and theory proved to him that it did exist.

Dudley did not have the same potential for magic that he did. Harry realized. It was the reason why his cousin had been completely ignoring the jewel and had been admiring those weapons instead. It was in fighting that Dudley was attracted too. And this was something that the jewel could not help with. But that didn't mean that it couldn't share some of its knowledge. Harry was determined not to abandon the only family he had left.

Harry touched the Ruby and allowed the knowledge to settle in his mind. He felt the wards of the tower recognizing him as his master and they went 'up' one by one.

"Dudley! Come here for a second would you?"

Dudley looked up from where he was admiring a large heavy sword. The bigger boy gave one last glance to the sword then walked briskly to his cousin to see what he wanted. But the closer that Dudley came the slower his feet carried him. Finally he stopped several feet away from the Ruby.

Fear settled in his stomach when he realized he knew things he didn't know before. He knew that these swords had been the personal weapons of the bodyguard of the previous owner. He knew that there was a complete armoury dedicated to every form of weapon known here. In short: he knew stuff that he couldn't have known before. Shouldn't know at all!

"Dudley?" Harry questioned. "What's wrong?" Harry realized that his cousin must have realized he now knew things he didn't know before. "Don't worry about the knowledge thing. It's natural. Touch the stone and it will teach you about the language and culture of his country." Harry told him.

"T-touching that thing?" Dudley repeated. The bigger boy shook his head nervously. Backing away from the stone rapidly, the knowledge he felt fading away.

"You can teach me the language yourself." Dudley said quickly. He desperately ignored the implications that they were an entirely different country somehow.

Harry frowned but then shrugged. "I suppose I could teach you myself." The boy agreed. "But it would take a long time 'cause it doesn't look like English at all!"

"T-that's okay." Dudley answered quickly. Harry frowned again as he tried to figure out why his cousin was reacting the way he did.

The knowledge he had available wasn't the entire database. But he could still' consult' it when he wanted to know something. This wasn't an immediate access and was more like knowledge that would 'occur' to you naturally. Like an idea.

It thus occurred to him that it must be because of his lack of potential in magic. And this was exactly the time where Harry began freaking out as well.

Why was he so accepting about the idea of magic? Even though he 'knew' about it didn't mean he really 'believed' it.

Harry took several deep breaths and backed off. "Let's get some sleep cousin. I'm dead tired and I'm sure you are as well. We can tackle 'this' tomorrow." Unsaid was the fact that he would have to touch the Ruby or they would be in big trouble.

Dudley looked like he wanted to protest but he kept silent instead.

Both boys crawled into bed and fell asleep nearly instantaneously.

As soon as both boys were sleeping, the stone sank back into the the stone floor. The Ruby itself was very vulnerable when it was in the open like this.

Point of view change

The magical tower had been slumbering for centuries. It's senses had been diluted and weakened after its master had perished. It's master had always been a very unusual man. He did not have the limitations or the prejudice that so many other magic practising races seemed to have.

He had been doing his best to make his tower as magical as possible. Rooms that were bigger on the inside than the outside. Supplies that were in a form of stasis so that it's food could never go bad. It was given the 'power' to expand itself within reason as much as it desired. And it had done so over the centuries. Even after its master had died.

For centuries the tower had been sleeping, it had been gathering and stockpiling its own magical reserves, reinforcing the wards protecting the tower layer by layer. Just in case it would receive a new master. The fact that its defences were still slaughtering any and all wannabe be heroes did not matter. Only the worthy would be allowed in the tower let alone be allowed to touch its heart.

And then those children appeared in the middle of the tower. After all the traps and deadly creatures. One moment it was empty and the next it had two intruders but beyond the point where it could do nothing to get rid of them. So the tower had extended its senses and had examined the two children for that was what they were. Where dozens of heroes had failed to penetrate its outer defences how had a mere two untrained children managed to teleport to just a floor beneath its heart?

It was reminded of its promise to its old master. Allow only the worthy in my tower... This prompted the magical entity to cautiously probe the memories of the two boys. By the end of it, the tower had concluded that it had no other choice but to accept them. These two boys did not realize the risks of going downstairs and into the active traps. They did not realize they were in a completely different world filled with battles, war, racism and prejudice.

So it had manipulated and sealed the stairs downstairs to urge them to go up instead. The youngest boy was then immediately attracted to its heart. But the bigger boy... He hadn't been attracted at all. Instead the boy had went straight to the weapons wall against the wall. It seemed that only the youngest had a strong potential in magic.

It appeared that the youngest boy wasn't stupid either. It was fighting the lure of its heart. It was only the boy's lack of experience that nearly caused him to lose the battle of wills. But this was yet one more reason for the tower to accept the youngest as its new master.

The youngest boy realized the things it knew but decided to touch the stone anyway. The transfer of the limited amount of knowledge to the youngest boy -Harry- was a success. It didn't matter that the eldest boy refused to touch the stone. A subtle suggestion was all it took for both children to take a nap. Which give the tower the opportunity to make the link with itself.

This way, the connection that the tower would have would be stronger. It would be nearly impossible to destroy the link they now had. Through the link that the tower now had to both boys it carefully and cautiously 'uploaded' enough knowledge to understand the new culture, language both written and spoken and the most important thing of all: the basics of magic!

After making sure that both boys knew enough so they did not have to waste days if not months to study the language, culture and habits it moved on to other less important but still crucial information. How many floors did the tower have, what supplies, how many minions did it have as its defensive army, what was the right way through the complicated maze below?

It shared everything that was crucial to know.

One crucial piece of knowledge that it taught Dudley was the following:

_Magic users often balance themselves between madness and genius. It is for this reason that they had someone they could trust completely. This person would be their right hand, a second in command or even a life partner. Dudley would be this person for Harry. He would be Harry's second in command. His most trusted advisor and closest friend. Dudley would keep Harry sane and healthy._

Harry was being 'taught' the opposite.

_A wizard or witch that does not have a trusted companion dooms him or herself to insanity. It is the price that one pays to practice the arts of magic. It is for this reason that the relation between wizard and 'warrior' is often very complex. They could hate each other at times but would still die to protect the other._

_The warrior would cover for the wizard and the wizard would cover for the warrior._

Sharing of important and crucial information? Check.

Creation of the link between wizard and tower? Check.

Creation of the link between wizard and warrior? Check.

Transferring the control of the wards, minions and other protections to new Master? Check.

Now that the tower had a new master it was able to reactivate the many charms and runes spread and carved into the tower everywhere.

Beds were replaced with new ones, windows were opened and centuries worth of dust was removed in an instant.

Then of course there was the matter of its new name and gender. The tower already tended to refer to itself as female. Apparently Harry -her new master- picked up on this desire because he named her right after that!

'Ruby' Harry muttered as if being asked himself. "You shall be called Ruby."

The newly named Ruby decided that it -SHE- liked the name. She cautiously probed the child to see just how tired the child must have been. A mere moment later, Ruby realized that the child was far more drained then he should be. He needed a lot of rest to recover, but the rate of recovery was lower then the rate which he was 'losing' his magic by.

This left Ruby with precious few options. She could wait and see, but by then it might be too late. She could wait and then try to help but that had its own risks... Or... She could set a tiny amount of magic -compared to her total amount stored- and carefully feed it into her new master instead. The problem was that 'her' magic was highly refined and not really meant for a human even if he was a wizard.

Still... The child was dangerously tired and exhausted. His magic was already struggling to replenish itself and it wouldn't have to be much. Just a tiny amount to jump start its recovery.

'Yes.' Ruby decided. 'That's what I'm going to do.' She carefully calculated how much magic she had compared to a regular human wizard. Then she compared her results with her new master and came up short.

'That's odd.' Ruby mused. 'Either this child is insanely powerful or I've made a big mistake. Does this child have some sort of... LEECH!'

If Ruby had been a human she would have come to an abrupt stop. (had she been walking)

Getting rid of a parasite (or a leech) was incredible difficult in the best of circumstances. Especially if it was draining the magic of a human. There was only one option and that was to blast it away with raw magical power. Thankfully for her new master she had plenty of magic in reserve.

Ruby did her calculations again and made sure to take care of the parasite. This time she got an answer she was happy with and prepared to get rid of the leech. Ruby would not and could not tolerate a leech of any kind on HER master.

'Redoing calculations once more...' Completed.

'Initiating transfer to temporary backup to get rid of THE LEECH...' Completed.

'Starting transfer...'

Ruby's magic lashed out against the foreign magic which -as predicted- attempted to defend itself. Obviously it was going to lose. A leech's magical reserve versus that of a tower that had been building its own reserves for centuries? It was obvious who was going to win.

The battle between Ruby's magic and that of the leech was very short. As soon as victory was achieved, the magic that had been drained was under nobody's control any more. Cautiously extending her 'magical hands' so to speak, she directed the magic into settling in her master reserves and to focus on healing and recovering.

The master-less magic seemed to resist for a split second before it lost all traces of its previous owner and did as it was told.

Now that her new master was recovering as he should, Ruby allowed herself to feel just a bit of glee. For the many centuries that she had been sleeping, her senses had been dulled because she had no master. The runes that her master had placed all over in the country and the world relied on a human's magic to be activated.

Finally she could activate the runes again and extend her senses properly again!

Checking her master's magical reserves again she nodded at the rate it was replenishing itself.

Ruby activated the runes in the country and connected them one by one to her master and then to herself. Information was coming to her more and more often... The sun was shining, cows were grazing and farmers were being slaughtered by a local warlord.

All was well.

Wait... What? Back up a bit...

Ruby's senses did not lie. Peasants **were** being slaughtered by a local land lord. Ruby was powerless to do anything about it for now. So she could only watch helplessly as those poor innocent people were being killed.

She resolved to send some of her master's minions to... Sabotage some of this lord's operations.

* * *

><p><span>The next morning<span>

It was Dudley that woke up first. Normally he liked to sleep in, but this time he wanted to be alone for a few minutes. He remembered his reaction yesterday very clearly and while anyone had a good reason to freak out when you suddenly knew stuff you **couldn't **have known before his reaction had been... Too much. Dudley used the stairs to go to the top level of the tower. It was high enough that you could watch over everything.

In fact, it had seemed almost... Foreign. Forced. Dudley hadn't wanted to say anything because he had felt tired and he wanted to have a clear head when he tackled this problem.

Then Dudley remembered Ruby thanks to the new knowledge he had.

"Ruby?" Dudley tried cautiously feeling like a fool because he talked to thin air.

+Yes?+

Dudley jumped in surprise. While he had expected some sort of reaction he had half thought it would be a mental connection. He had been wrong. The answer was similar to that of a radio, except he couldn't pinpoint the exact source.

"Am I under influence of some sort of... Something?" Dudley questioned. He didn't want to say magic just yet. He *knew* that magic didn't exist. And while there had been evidence that it actually did exist... He needed something more.

+Initiating scan+

Dudley was distracted when he looked back at the island. Before now he hadn't had a clear shot at the rest of the island but now he did.

His eyes nearly fell out of their eye sockets when he realized something... The island was floating in the FRICKING AIR! How was it possible? Dudley knew of no technology that could do something like this. While he knew of planes, helicopters and the like he was absolutely sure that it was impossible to make an entire island float without some sort of hint what was keeping it there. Dudley was distracted again from his train of thought by Ruby.

+I'm afraid I have bad new master Dudley.+

Dudley shook his head. What was Ruby talking about again? Dudley tried to remember but found that he couldn't.

"What were we talking about again?" The bigger boy asked again.

+You wanted to know if you were under some sort of influence... I started my scan and have the results.+ Ruby reported.

Dudley wanted to know what she had but found that his mouth didn't wish to work with him.

"S-something is" ARGH Dudley cried out in pain but forced himself to finish his sentence at least. "S-stopping me f-from talking-" Dudley fell to the ground when his legs abandoned him.

"TELL HARRY DAMMNIT!" Dudley shouted. It was that time that the pain overwhelmed him and unconsciousness took him.

Unfortunately for Ruby Harry was sleeping deeply. She had already tried several times to wake him but was unable to do so. Save shocking him through her internal defences, Ruby did not have much options left to her.

Ruby concluded that she had to make a decision. Dudley had several charms and enchantments on him that were draining any and all magical potential and were then suppressing that potential. Ruby only had two options open to her. Her first option was to do the same thing to Dudley as she did to Harry. This wasn't a smart idea because Dudley's potential had gone down to the point that there was a big chance that it might kill him.

The other option was a lot more complicated.

When people were found that had a potential for magic, they always looked for a second person that was a warrior of some sort. But that doesn't make sense of its own.

Mages... Often balanced between genius and madness. Sanity and insanity were the biggest causes of suspicion of Mages. But whey they were... Grounded with someone that was a warrior of some sort the chance that they (the Mages) fell into insanity was a lot lower.

While this didn't sound bad at first there was one big issue. The warrior was an underling to the Mage. This was the price that was to be paid to keep the Mage from edging into insanity. The 'relation' between Mage and warrior were often very complex. Some had a love/hate relationship. If both warrior and Mage were of the same gender, it would make things even more complicated then they already were.

The reason for this... Mage and warrior often considered themselves brothers. Close friends. Best friends. Trusted partners. But over time the Mage begins to give more and more orders. The Mage is often unaware that he is treating his partner more like a handy servant than anything else. And that was only one of the problems in Ruby's case.

Age was another factor. A warrior / Mage bond was rarely initiated before adulthood. And even then they waited as long as possible to make sure that they could stand each other. Or that neither would abuse the trust of the other.

Ruby did not have time to educate Harry.

She obviously did not have time to wait for Harry or Dudley to mature in adulthood.

She had in fact only minutes to decide.

Her decision in the end was not simple to make. But she did what she did because she had no other option.

* * *

><p>POINT OF VIEW CHANGE TO AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT TIME AND PLACE<p>

The land where Dudley and Harry appeared was oddly close to that of our own.

You had the united states of America as one of the super powers. But this was only because the American government kept control with military superiority. Rebellions were crushed as soon as they appeared to keep the illusion of strength. Each individual state was secretly preparing one more rebellion. If this failed then they would have no choice but to surrender to the government and let it assume complete control.

It wasn't a question IF they would go to war but WHEN.

You had China and Japan. Two more super powers that battled political battles to overthrow the other and united the Asian nations under one banner. Willingly or not. China and Japan often threatened each other to go to war if they didn't back off. They never went through with it but it escaped nobody's notice that both countries were gearing up for war.

It wasn't a question IF they would go to war but WHEN.

There were the various countries of Europe that were once part of the United Nations of Europe also known as UNE. Each individual country was gearing up for war. Just like all the others. The only thing keeping order was the fact that nobody wanted to make the first move.

The only country that was able to keep its neutrality on all grounds was England. The once powerful nation had been reduced to England only. All other expansions had long rebelled to seek out their independence. For that reason England had recalled all of their forces and had dug themselves in. Large powerful fleets patrolled their waters and magical creatures and technological creations alike kept superiority over their airspace.

To make things even more complicated was the fact that Russia was finally regaining control over its wayward provinces. It was taking them back one by one while keeping their borders shut tight. Russia was one of the super powers that was already at war to take their territories back. And once they did they could set their eyes on foreign territory instead.

**That** was the only reason that complete war hadn't broken out yet. No nation had a clear advantage over the other that they could keep. No defence would be able to hold forever and if one nation declared war, others could and possibly would ally with each other to deal with the 'trouble maker' but to secretly have an excuse to annex some of its territories.

And now we arrive at the introduction for the third out of four main characters

It was a good day to be a shinobi of Konoha but it was an even better day for Uzumaki Naruto. He was responsible for the death of the master mind behind the criminal organization Akatsuki. All major villages had been hit hard and had received heavy losses. One could say that Konoha was hit the hardest except for one little fact. Konoha still had their secret weapon. The only human left that held one of the legendary tailed beasts.

This meant that if angered, Naruto could destroy whole villages on a whim. And to make things even worse (for their enemies) was the fact that Naruto was about to be promoted to Hokage. It meant that the other villages would have to ally with each other if they wanted to stand a chance against Konoha. That wouldn't happen though. Suna was allied rather closely because of the friendship Naruto had with their Kazekage. That was one threat less to worry about. The other countries either owned him for one thing or another or just wanted to rebuilt.

This meant that none of them had any interest in war. They wanted to live their lives, complete their missions and just go about their daily lives.

Naruto had changed since he had become an official shinobi. He had become respected by his allies and feared by his enemies. He was known world wide to be the most surprising shinobi of Konoha.

Naruto wasn't the next Hokage just yet. He first needed to learn a few specific things that only the Hokage knew about. Normally he was tutored and taught by the previous Hokage weeks if not months before. Since the Sandaime or the third Hokage had perished in battle a lot of information had been lost. Some information was not written down. Ever. Kakashi and Tsunade wanted to make sure that Naruto knew what everything was about.

Except it didn't happen that way.

To understand the reason why it never happened one had to understand some of his history. Naruto had been captured six times. And every time the Akatsuki managed to capture him they lost him again. When they captured him the fifth out of six times the Akatsuki decided that a fail safe was in order.

They ordered their seal specialist under their pay to tattoo a seal on his body in case they were ever defeated. The seal was locked in with the Akatsuki's best. Every time one of them died, the seal would become deactivate another lock that kept it from activating.

The last of these 'officers' died just a few hours before Naruto would rise to the position of Hokage. The seal detected that the last lock had disengaged but waited several more hours. It had happened before that they had faked their deaths. When no change occurred after six hours the seal activated itself.

The purpose of the seal was meant to result in Naruto's death. Unfortunately, the seal specialist had been forced to hurry and had made an unfortunate mistake. The seal was meant to disrupt the balance of Naruto's chakra between his human chakra and that of his prisoner. It was supposed to result in a big explosion destroying as much as possible in the process.

That was its original purpose. Because of the mistake of the seal specialist, the seal was altered just enough to result into something entirely else.

Naruto's own chakra and that of Kyuubi was separated. The power of the Kyuubi was mixing with Naruto's own which was the reason why he had so much chakra. The Kyuubi itself was 'conquered' by Naruto at just the right time. Right now the Kyuubi was just another set of senses. Something to throw idea's or suggestions at. Naruto and Kyuubi weren't friends by a long shot. The closest thing they could call themselves were reluctant partners.

Since the seal was armed and active there would be no way to stop it from completing it's goals.

Normal point of view

Naruto frowned when he sensed that his chakra was acting up. It had always acted his way when he was in danger or otherwise put in harms way. Naruto didn't have much time to think about it though when the Kyuubi's power began acting up too.

Naruto's frown deepened even more. Why was the Kyuubi's power acting up now? Again he had no time to think about the implications.

Naruto knew that he always had a unit of ANBU watching him and had always hated it. It was like he was helpless on his own. But at that moment he was glad that they did.

Knowing that he always had a unit of ANBU watching him as his personal bodyguard, he only had to give the order.

Naruto didn't know for sure if they would follow his orders. Technically he was still a Genin after all.

"My chakra is acting up." He told the ANBU. "I'm going into training ground forty four. It's the only place that's isolated enough to keep any damage happening to the city itself. Alert our patrols and start preparations for activating the emergency shelters. I don't want to take any chances."

Naruto didn't see his ANBU acknowledging his orders but he did sense two of them leaving and two others taking their place.

Naruto hoped that his orders would be for nothing. He would rather be wrong in this case. He was about to turn and head into the direction of the training ground when his chakra flared again. This time he could barely control it.

Naruto tried to contact his prisoner but the answer he got was the busy tone. Naruto knew very well that the Kyuubi wouldn't ignore him for trivial matters. It basically meant that the fox was already doing whatever it could to control the chakra flares.

When the flare stopped at what seemed to be its highest point, Naruto realized abruptly what was happening. Something had disrupted the seal that kept the Kyuubi sealed away. Something was mixing its power and his own by force. And he was winning. The amount of chakra to even stand a chance were mind boggling but there you go.

Naruto could sense that his chakra was getting... Better for the lack of a better word. It was becoming more effective. More potent. Stronger. Better. More powerful. Naruto realized that he needed to get rid of as much chakra as possible. That had been the purpose of the involuntary lose of control. They drained his chakra to a point. And then it was refilled shortly after.

Naruto hurried to the training ground as quickly as he could. Flaring his chakra in regular but smaller boosts. It would only be effective for a little while hut it would do. When he arrived at the training ground more than fifty shinobi were lurking around.

"What's going on?" The blond man demanded.

"They are preparing a variation of that purple prison that the sound four used during their first invasion with Suna." Shikamaru reported.

Naruto didn't question how the other man had come to the same conclusion as he did. But then Shikamaru wasn't a genius for nothing. Possible the smartest of his generation.

"I don't know what you think is happening, but I suggest that if I survive the deal, you'll be extra careful. You never know how the combination of Uzumaki chakra and demonic chakra combined will react with the already dangerous wildlife."

The thought of making the poisonous man eating plants, animals and bugs even more dangerous then they already were send shivers down on his spine.

"On second thought, either burn it to the ground or exterminate anything and everything in it." Naruto corrected himself.

Naruto's thoughts were abruptly caught off when his chakra tried to flare. Again. This time with another side effect.

Bits and pieces of information that he couldn't possibly have known before made themselves known. It was like... He had always known it before but had forgotten about it. And he had just now remembered it again.

Naruto realized three things at that time.

One: there was no way to stop the seal from completing its purpose. Two: he would die if he tried to stop the seal from completing its purpose. Three: he needed to help the seal to complete... its goal as much as he could.

Naruto didn't understand what it was doing or what it was going to do. He just knew for certain that he would survive. And surviving was good if he wanted to become Hokage.

When Naruto found himself deep enough in the forest he voluntarily released a flare that was big enough to get rid of the pressure. At least for a little while. The power washed over him like a tidal wave and nearly knocked him out.

When Naruto tested his reserves he realized that he had drained it more then he had meant to do. His reserves were nearly drained dry. And he could already feel it refilling at an astonishing rate.

Naruto could sense that his father seal released more chakra to increase the rate it was replenishing already. Bad move. But it wasn't as if he could stop it. Even though the Kyuubi's power was already being filtered, its very nature was more powerful than his own human chakra.

Naruto remembered the technique he had been trying to make. But the chakra that it had required was too much. Even for him. But right now he should have enough to power it twice over. Naruto flashed through the amount of seals that were needed to begin the technique. He only hoped he wasn't making a lethal mistake.

Naruto's chakra began to leak out of his body. Very similar to that of his Kyuubi's cloak except it was his own power and not that of the Kyuubi. It wouldn't hurt him too by just using it like the Kyuubi's chakra did.

Just like Naruto had feared, the chakra around him was altering and mutating the wildlife around him. All of them had fled when they sensed Naruto approaching. Not event the most dangerous animals would be able to kill this human. Naruto was at the top of the food chain. And even the predators realized that.

As Naruto was nearing the completion of his invented technique, he began to realize what it was his chakra was trying to do. Aside from mixing and making his chakra stronger and more effective. Not to mention tripling his reserves several times in a row.

Naruto was paying a heavy price for the increase of his reserves though. He would lose all the power that the Kyuubi had available. And it would take decades if not centuries to restore even a little of its power. The chakra was a mix that had never been seen before. It was altering Naruto. Changing how he fought. Changing what he could do. Making him even more dangerous than he already was.

Finally, Naruto finished his sequence of seals. The chakra was sucked into the technique and then he was gone. Leaving a deep crater behind. Training ground forty four was burned to the ground a few days later when his selected 'heir' came into power. Konohamaru would never get the respect they had held for Naruto. But he would make sure that Konoha would be safe for years to come.

XXX

Naruto appeared roughly ten years before Harry and Dudley would arrive. Hell, at that point they weren't even born yet. The political scene at this point was a lot more stable. The factions were still making preparations for their plans. Instead of appearing in a magical tower owned by a Mage long gone, Naruto appeared in what seemed to be the headquarters of the assassin's guild.

The assassin's guild had been declining in power for generations. They needed a powerful and charismatic leader to make them feared again.

The few Mages that were still loyal to the guild could sense the massive amount of talent in the man. But they also sensed that he wasn't an assassin as they understood it. Flashy powers and techniques were not what they thought an assassin should be.

END

I plan to follow both Naruto, Dudley and Naruto separately. Since Naruto appeared ten years before Dudley and Harry he would have a lot more time to prepare.

I'm basing a lot of quests from TES Oblivion. So you may recognize a few. I'm doing another play through to refresh my memory. And to prepare for the new game that's going to come out in a few weeks. (11-11-11!)

I will have FOUR main characters. Three of these characters have already been decided. (Dudley, Harry and Naruto. The fourth is undecided for now obviously.)

They **will** make mistakes.

They **will** be greedy and selfish.

They **will** be defeated.

They **will** be injured.

This story has been influenced by quests, items, magic and magic based on:

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion

Fallout 3 games

Fantasy Games

PPP

Below are the 'classes' of my main characters including a short description of what they will 'do.' Don't take their classes too seriously. This is a story. Not a game. So they won't be limited by it.

PPP

Magic user: Harry

Harry can do magic. Period.

xxxxxx

Warrior / Engineer / scientist(?): Dudley

Dudley will be the only character of the party that can repair, built and maintain weapons.

Dudley will be the guy who provides technology that's never going to happen in real life

xxxxxx

Thief, assassin, infiltrator: Naruto

Naruto will be the one that will kill, sabotage or abduct to complete their goals.

xxxxxx

?: Undecided.

You might have already guessed it, but I'm saying it outright. The 'world' where Dudley and Harry have appeared is an alternate version of our earth. Same countries, places and important characters of history and maybe the present except that magic is public knowledge while at the same time, technology is advancing just as much as the time/world/reality where Harry & Dudley come from.

**Harry will be teaching himself through books and such but without a teacher. He'll be a jack of all trades and a master of none... In the beginning. It speaks for itself that eventually he'll master one or more specific branches.**


	2. Drap the unlucky Druid

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

**This story is inspired by:**

**The Elder Scrolls Oblivion + expansions (for quests, magic & items)  
><strong>

**Fallout III + expansions**

* * *

><p>Drap is NOT a major character and will have only a small secondary role. That's why the first few page's is to introduce him. Skip to the 888 in the middle if you want to skip to Naruto &amp; Drap interacting.<p>

**I checked this chapter again and modified some serious dialogue, spelling and grammar mistakes.**

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 02**

_What happens to our third character after he arrives in 'my' world?_

_(My world will be referred to as '_Maboroshi.')

Unknown location

?,? years before the arrival of H&D

Naruto's point of view

* * *

><p>Naruto appeared in the middle of nowhere with a loud crash. Scaring the wildlife and scattering them in all directions. Normally such an event would go unnoticed since the crash happened deep into the woods of a large forest somewhere on the continent. Luckily for Naruto, there was something or rather <strong>someone<strong> else in the area then just mere animals.

A little bit of History...

An exiled Druid apprentice had been living in the woods for years already. The reason of his exile was... Complicated. This particular Druid had lost anything and everything he had every owned. His former... Masters had robbed him of his name, had robbed him of his first staff and had robbed him of the few friends he had ever had. Humans and animal alike. They had taken **everything** from him.

The Druid people as a whole didn't care much for possessions. They valued friends and being around a lot of people. In other words they were a very social if exclusive people as a whole.

The biggest insult was the fact they had taken his (unfinished) staff from him. Anything else he could've gotten over it, but his staff... The staff of a Druid represented their connection to nature, to their magic and it actually hinted what sort of person the owner was. Taking the staff while it was unfinished was both a blessing and a curse.

If the staff had been finished and it had been destroyed he would never be able to make another one again. His connection with nature would be terminated and he would be forced to live in the larger cities because animals would not trust him at all.

The fact remained that his staff **hadn't **been finished. It was a near thing but it was still incomplete. This fact saved him a whole lot of trouble, misery and pain. His former masters had forced him as his staff was destroyed. Years of hard work was destroyed in moments. Then they had promptly send him on his way and had forbidden him to ever come back. His former masters had given him as few supplies they could manage. If his staff had been finished it would've been a death sentence.

Thankfully, nature loved him as much he loved nature. Predators had left him alone if they weren't provoked and he found plenty of berries and animals to kill for food and their skin.

Since his old masters had taken his name, he had to find himself a new one. He would get to know his name when he completed his staff. It took the apprentice **_years_** to make a new staff. He had to hunt for the right materials by himself, then he had to forge the staff with barely any equipment at all. If there was one thing you could call the apprentice then it was the fact he was as stubborn as a mule. Once he got something in his head, he wouldn't let it go until he decided to let it go.

For every step he completed, he could feel his connection with nature returning. With every step he completed himself, he could sense more, understand more than he had ever experienced before.

The Druid apprentice had just completed the last step of the staff forging process when he sensed the disturbance in the forest. **Drap** for that was the name that Mother Nature itself had given him realized that this was his opportunity to find himself a mentor and a new Master.

Drap had been growing increasingly worried as time passed. A Druid **needed** a mentor or a master. Since a Druid was technically a way too communicate with nature, they needed a way to be grounded. An anchor. Someone to lean on. Druids without a mentor or a master tended to go rogue nine out of ten. And even that single remaining Druid would eventually go nuts no matter how much discipline he had.

* * *

><p>That was the reason why his masters had destroyed his staff. They had believed it had been finished. Since they hadn't <strong>asked<strong> if it was, the Druid apprentice hadn't been able to convince himself to tell them that. They had betrayed **him** after all. He no longer owned them the courtesy of being polite.

Technically, a Druid apprentice could never be a true master, because that implied you had learned anything and everything that you could learn about being a Druid. But in the Druid community, no matter how small its population, you were considered a 'master' when you completed your staff, could shift into an animal and could summon your familiar.

Drap had completed all of them. He had completed his staff, he could shift into an animal, he could summon his familiar and he had discovered his new name as a result.

Drap had studied the laws of his former people for years. He knew that now that he was considered to be a master by their laws, he was able to start his own Druid community.

With every passed day, Drap could feel his sanity slipping. Already he had found himself having thoughts of questioning why he shouldn't make them regret exiling him. Why he shouldn't show them how strong he had become. And every time, his growing connection with nature had shocked him back into normal sanity. Or at least the closest thing he could have.

Drap knew very well that if they discovered that he was still alive and still able to make his connection to nature that they would try to kill him. They would never allow their mistakes to become public knowledge. But he also knew that his power would be feared. The first reason was the type of familiar he had. It was a regular black wolf. More importantly: it was an alpha wolf.

And while the lion may be considered king in Africa, the wolf ruled in the forests of the continent.

They traveled in packs, coordinated their attacks to take down a prey superior to themselves with superior numbers and actual tactics. Since his familiar was an Alpha wolf it meant that he could count on the wildlife to **not** attack him unless severely provoked. And even then...

The second reason they would fear him because of his power would be the form he could take.

Druids tended to classify your power based on what animal you could become first. It hinted at your personality, goals in life and other things.

First was the house cat, which most Druid apprentices aimed for because it was a relative easy form to study and eventually to gain it. Secondly was a water form. This wasn't really specified to one form. Getting this or the cat form first didn't really matter. This is in normal circumstances. After the cat and water form, Druid apprentices chose either the larger and more dangerous tiger, white tiger or a battle form related to a feline.

Followed by this more powerful cat form was an animal that could fly. Followed by the second most dangerous animal: the black bear. And this was what marked him differently from the start.

Drap had begun just like everybody else with a basic simple cat form. That was followed by a water form. Both had been taken from him when they had taken his staff. If the staff had been finished and he hadn't been as shocked as he had been when they took it he would have been able to summon it to him and fight a warriors death. Since he didn't it had made him seem like a coward.

When he had begun again to make his staff, he had lost all of his progress in his animal forms. It meant starting over. You have to understand that studying the domesticated house cat not always meant you became a house cat. You could become a 'wilder' cousin instead. So when Drap was able to study a small family of wildcats also known as Mountain Lions, Puma's or the infamous Mountain screamers he surprised himself by not shifting into 'just' a cat but into a jaguar.

The jaguar was the third largest cat known aside the Lion who got first place and the tiger who got second.

This fact also worried him. The jaguar was a great hunter, feared by humans for their ability to stalk their prey and pounce without them knowing they were even there. Even though they tended to avoid humans when they entered their territory all bets were off.

888888

* * *

><p>888888<p>

Drap shook himself out of his musing and promptly left the cave he had been living in the last few years. Drap moved through the bushes like he owned the place. And after living here for years he knew this part of the forest very well. He had taken to explore it in the summer months after all. He hated being locked in his cave during the coldest months of snow and ice.

The moment that Drap really saw the unconscious form of Naruto he knew instinctively that this would be his mentor. It wasn't exactly a conscious and willing choice but once he had made the decision it would be final. Drap could feel the barely contained power buzzing beneath the skin of this man.

Another feature of a Master Druid was the fact he could mimic sounds of his animal forms.

Drap closed his eyes and let out a loud howl that would summon his familiar to him. A large amount of Druids tended to dismiss their familiar back to the magical realm but Drap did not. He allowed his familiar to do what it pleased as long as it came when he summoned it. It was a fairly dangerous practice because it could take hours before the wolf could help.

Drap didn't need to wait for long until his friend answered his call along with his Pack. Drap rarely called on him, so the wolf familiar had taken his pack with him. They would tear his Master's enemies into pieces!

Once the wolf had arrived, Drap only needed to point to the unconscious body. His familiar was smart enough to know that this body wasn't meant for eating so that meant help in transportation. His master wasn't of the strongest physically. A price they paid for their connection with nature.

With the help of the other wolves and a lot of effort they managed to get the unconscious man on the back of the huge black wolf familiar.

The familiar didn't mind helping his master with this. He was after all given a freedom few familiars had. This meant that his loyalty was forever secured.

It took them a significant long time to transport the young man into his home. Drap lived in the middle of a forest after all. There was hardly a cut path for him. And Drap didn't want to bother using his power to help make a path. He rarely went the same way twice after all.

Several hours later Drap finally got home. Drap didn't mind sleeping outside for the night. It was still warm enough for it to be safe, but he would have to make sure that he made a new bed soon. Winter was approaching and Drap didn't think the man would wake up any time soon.

This was a problem. Drap knew enough of making potions and herbs to heal wounds, cuts and how to heal fevers and such. But this man had a combination of the former. The man had numerous cuts and small wounds from dragging him through the forest. Even though his familiar had been a great help, it still hadn't been perfect. Not only that but the man was poisoned too which resulted in a heavy fever.

Drap saw no other choice than to connect to nature and plead for help. This was very risky because the other Druids would know he could still connect to it. It meant they would know he had made a new staff. It would tell them that they had made a rookie mistake by not making sure his staff had been finished or not.

Or maybe they had known and dismissed the fact because they thought he would've died long before that. It meant that they would start hunting for him. Writing him of as a criminal of their community. Drap knew he was safe for the winter though. He was months away from the nearest village let alone a larger city.

"I have no other choice." Drap said to himself. Seeing the curiosity of his familiar, Drap explained it in terms that the wolf would understand. Even though familiars had superior intellect, they still weren't human.

His familiar's answer was predictable. "He's your alpha right? In that case you should do everything you can to help him."

It wasn't in those words but Drap understood his familiar well enough to put it into perspective.

* * *

><p>Drap closed his eyes and connected to nature. Just like before it was an awesome experience. It was humbling just as it made you invincible. Drap felt like he had all the knowledge at his fingertips if only he allowed himself to dig deeper and -NO-<p>

Drap used his experience and stopped himself from going on that path. Not only was it treason to the Earth itself but it was pure stupidity to think of using it for personal gain. The Earth gave Birth to you and it could take it away just as easily. It was why it was testing it's Druids constantly.

The interaction between Drap and the Earth Mother is difficult to understand. The Earth mother isn't alive like a human but it isn't as... 'stupid' as a tree either. It knows what is happening but is very slow to react to it.

When a Druid interacts directly with the Earth Mother it seems like centuries go by in meditating and learning. This was one of the most important reasons why it was risky and not done just because. You needed to have a good reason for it. Or you would just commit suicide.

Even now, Drap wasn't entirely sure it was a smart thing to do. But he did not wish to become insane. And making this man his mentor would prevent that. But for that to happen he needed to live.

To Drap's own surprise, his interaction with the Earth Mother was smoother than it had ever been before. It was like the Earth mother was upset with the other Druids and was giving them the silent treatment and was preferring **HIM** at the moment. This could change in a heartbeat though. If the Earth Mother perceived an insult you could lose that favor without even knowing it.

More than one favored Druid had died that way. Either in battle or because they let themselves be consumed during their interaction with the Earth Mother itself.

Drap snapped out of it shortly after. The knowledge in how to heal his mentor fresh in his mind, and his magic at his fingertips was ready to be unleashed.

As soon as Drap's magic 'entered' the man's body he realized that the damage was far worse than he could have imagined.

The blond man's considerable power was already working towards healing his own injuries. But it was doing more damage then it actually healed. Drap had been 'told' that he needed to take control of the healing power that this man had available. Drap felt very nervous because doing this was very intimate. It was usually only done by someone you trusted. Nothing sexual mind you but it would tell Drap a lot of things about himself without his permission. But it was either that or death. So Drap supposed he would just have to apologize to him and hope it was enough.

* * *

><p><span>Point of view change<span>

Shortly after he crashed and before he was found by Drap

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself in an unknown location. For a moment he tried to stand up but that was when his injuries made themselves known to him. Naruto had learned how to control his own chakra, not that of the fox to heal his injuries. It usually was enough for cuts and bruises. Since Naruto didn't know enough to realize that his injuries were a lot worse than that, he performed the technique -if only barely- that would heal his injuries.

Naruto blacked out shortly after realizing that perhaps he should have paid more attention in those healer classes that Tsunade and Sakura had been attempting to teach him.

* * *

><p><span>Shortly after Drap finds Naruto but before he summoned his familiar<span>

Naruto came to consciousness again when he sensed someone standing close to him. It was only because of his paralyzing injuries and the incredible pain that he kept himself very still. It was the same instinct which made other animals play dead to try and fool hunting predators.

Naruto could sense no aggression from this man or anything close to something which would be a threat to him. The power this man commanded was considerable. Naruto wasn't sure who would be able to win should they ever fight. Not even when he was in top condition. Naruto allowed himself to fall into another healing sleep.

* * *

><p><span>Still Naruto's point of view. (P.O.V)<span>

Naruto woke up again to find himself in an entirely different location. He had been moved for miles and hadn't even been aware of it. This meant that he had been knocked out, or this man truly didn't mean any harm.

That was when Naruto sensed another in the cave. It wasn't bright enough to be human but certainly large enough to be a threat. Naruto was about to try and alert his caretaker to this threat when Naruto realized that this 'threat' didn't display any aggressive behavior.

Naruto's train of thought was cut off when he sensed the man doing something to his chakra and... taking control of it?

His first instinct was to take control back and shove this guy out. But the way it was done... It was like he was only tugging and pulling his chakra into different directions and not 'really' taking control of it.

This was when things got weird.

* * *

><p>The moment that Drap used his power to try and attempt and fix the mistakes that the power of this man was making, he knew immediately that the man was awake. Not awake enough to talk, but conscious enough to feel threatened to what he was doing.<p>

Drap tried to reassure the man that he was just trying to help. And the only way to reassure the man that it really wasn't a trap and he really was trying to help was to either establish the mentor bond or to tug the man's body into his own.

This was a very intimate act and it was rarely done if you didn't know each other. But in extreme situations like this one... He had no choice.

Naruto on his part was amazed that this unknown man was able to control his chakra. And he didn't even feel threatened! Naruto was familiar with doing this, but it was supposed to be a very rare practice. Because it told things about the other that even the closest sort of friends would never discover over each other. Not in two lifetimes even.

Naruto realized what this meant. Either he was more injured than he thought or the man wanted to gain his trust and this was the only option available. Naruto didn't even have the strength to open his eyes so he supposed that there was no other choice.

An enemy wouldn't do this. An enemy would take his chakra by force and chain it down to get control over him. It was comparable to a crude leash.

Naruto allowed his chakra to flow into the other's body and realized that he was in trouble. He wasn't in danger, not at all but he was entirely alone. No allies. No friends. No subordinates. Except for this man. Naruto didn't have a connection with nature. And he would never have it. But since Drap was still high with the Earth Mother's power he was able so share some information.

Naruto knew that Drap would go insane without a mentor.

He knew that the mentor bond was meant to keep him and the mentor in check.

Such a sharing of thoughts or information is not instant. It is slow and is often misunderstood. Perception of time is nearly impossible and if done by a none Druid you could easily spend days doing so and die as a result.

Drap was experienced enough to know when to shut the link down. Several suggestions to go to sleep later and the man finally admitted defeat.

"_Blondie is stubborn I'll give him that."_ Drap acknowledged silently. Even though they had taken the first step in the process it still had flaws. All the information shared and neither knew what name the other called himself by.

Drap spend the rest of the evening healing and undoing the mistakes that Blondie's power had made. When Drap terminated the connection he was exhausted.

X

The chapter has been modified and edited on 8/11/2011

If you review and wish an answer, ENABLE the PM system because if you don't I can't answer. And I will not enable anonymous reviewers, because I KNOW what sort of comments I'll get. Either lurkers that give pointless 'update' reviews or lurkers that bash everything you write with nothing to back it up.

I hope you enjoyed the modified chapter.

(chapter six will continue from this point forward)

The other chapters will be reviewed and modified too. So keep a look out!

KD


	3. The plot thickens

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

**I have completed my goal of five thousand words! Yippee!**

**x  
><strong>

**My chapters will NOT go below two thousand five hundred words.**

**KD**

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

Chapter 03

_My world will be referred to as '__**Maboroshi**_.'

Try and look it up what it means. You'll be surprised héhéhé

H&D Ruby's Tower

Several weeks had passed since they had arrived here. They were very lucky that the water and food had been in a stasis of sorts. It would do for now but fresh would was still healthier. The thought that the meat, vegetables and water was centuries years old...

Harry and Dudley had found themselves struggling to define their relation. They were still friends but there was a tension between them that neither could define. Dudley felt like Harry could order him around and he would be helpless to resist and yet... He knew that Harry wouldn't do that but Dudley couldn't help but fear the possibility that it could happen.

Harry on the other hand sensed the same thing. He knew instinctively that he could give his cousin commands. The situation was hard to define. Dudley had referred to Harry a lot of times. Except when they were 'home' it was the other way around. But only as pretend. While Dudley would give Harry orders it was only when his parents pressured him to do so.

Harry and Dudley knew that they couldn't leave the situation as it was but neither knew how to end it. Or how to change it. So they left the situation as it was and both were hoping that the tension would just go away.

Ruby was helpless to do or say anything. She was a magic tower and not a psychiatrist for crying out loud. The very reason that only the closest friends entered in a Mage warrior kind of relation was because the trust was there. It had been tried before with younger members and it had always resulted in failure. Or at least ninety percent of the time.

It was exactly two months later that Dudley was sick and tired of the tension and the fear. He gathered his courage and confronted Harry with it. He wanted them to return to their old friendship. He wanted to go back to when he could really trust him. Dudley needed confirmation that Harry would not abuse the power he held over him just like Dudley needed to prove that he would never do the same to Harry.

X

"We need to talk." Dudley said calmly when the two of them prepared for lunch.

"Can't it wait until we finished Dudley?" Harry half whined. Dudley could _feel_ the suggestion and almost agreed but he forced himself to ignore it and pull through.

"No. We need to talk about the tension both of us have been feeling. I want us to return to how things were. I can... **feel** that you can tell me to do things and I wouldn't be able to refuse. That's... You KNOW that's like..." Dudley trailed off, trying to think of the right word.

"Like a trained pet." Dudley finished.

Harry looked at Dudley and both could see the fear and pre-teen angst in the other's eyes.

"Why not just promise to not take advantage of it and see if there is a way to enforce it?" Harry proposed. He had been reading books that Ruby had judged him ready for. Which wasn't much at this point. The most basic things. How to feel your magic, how to connect to it. How to recognize how much magic you are using. That sort of thing.

And one thing that Harry had learned was that nothing was impossible as long you had the intent behind it.

"It can't be that simple." Dudley denied. "Can it?" He added uncertainly.

"I..." Harry began. "I think it is." He said simply. "Remember what I told you last week? Magic is all about intent. And even though your magical potential has been ruined by..." Harry trailed off. Neither had a clue who it had been that had ruined Dudley's potential.

"Well, whoever was responsible counted on long term goals. While your potential is too low to do any of the more powerful spells, you still have enough magic to do things like magical oaths or promises."

Dudley seemed to relax in his chair. "Then we write an oath together and use that after it is finished?" He asked just to be sure.

Harry shot his cousin a smile. "That's exactly what we will do." He agreed.

Both boys relaxed now that the issue had been dealt with. They could work on it so that neither could ever abuse it.

A week later...

Dudley and Harry had worked on the contract for a week. Dozens of variations had been proposed and rejected until they both agreed to keep it as simple as possible.

_I, Harry James Potter promise to never use my power over my _**warrior**_ for no good reason._

Dudley repeated the oath but replaced it with his own name and referred to Harry as 'his Mage' instead. After all was said and done, Dudley and Harry never felt closer. They knew now that neither could or would ever abuse the trust of the other. And that was that. It took about a week for both boys to relax. But after that it was like it had never happened at all.

Harry and Dudley spend their days outside exploring. The island was big enough that they could take walks for hours and not reach the edge of it. Ruby did warn them not to go too far. There were various magical creatures that lived on the island. And while they were 'loyal' to the master of the tower, it had been centuries since there had been anyone there.

It was better to just stick within three hours of the tower and let the magical creatures come to them instead.

The weather they were having was just perfect. The only problem was that the island was floating on the wind currents and they had no idea where it was going. There was only one way to anchor the island to a location and that was to go down and bury the special ward stones. These particular stones had identical twins that needed to be buried on the island as well. The moment that Dudley buried them at random spots and Harry did the same below the island they would become the anchor that kept the island at the same location.

If Dudley removed the twin stones on the island, the anchors would disappear and the other half would teleport themselves to the island again. This way they could never be stolen.

Six months after H&D arrived

"I can't believe we've been here a half a year already." Dudley said to Harry. The boys were relaxing in chairs on the top of the tower. It was the first time in months that they could go outside without having to rely on Ruby's protections to keep the cold out. Right now it was a bit chilly, but the sun was just warm enough to enjoy the first sunshine.

"Neither can I." Harry agreed. "Especially considering the stuff we both learned in so little time."

"I still can barely believe my eyes when you do those magic tricks." Dudley said after a moment.

"Yes Dudley I know." Harry muttered. "You've told me that a dozen times already... Today alone. Believe me when I say that I BELIEVE you.

"Yes well." Dudley muttered. "I'm..." He took a deep breath. "I'm jealous all right?" Dudley admitted. "It's been annoying me for a while now and I know that I will never do most of the tricks you can do. I feel useless knowing that I can't defend myself against an enemy that can use magic. Not like you can at least."

Harry was surprised to hear it. _"First that issue with the command thing and now THIS. Can't we catch a break?"_ Harry whined in the privacy of his thoughts.

"Why don't you just master the few magic spells you can do and master them to levels unheard off?" Harry asked him. "It would be a very nice ace in the hole." Harry added to sweeten the deal.

Dudley wasn't at all happy with that. But then his conscious got the better of it and he seriously gave it some thought. Dudley realized that he had to say something.

"You are right of course!" Dudley admitted.

"So you aren't completely helpless are you?" Harry pointed out. "But you might make it seem like you are." Harry hinted subtly.

"I might hint like I am..." Dudley repeated with a frown.

"That way you can surprise our enemies." Harry nodded as if it was Dudley's idea all along..

'oh' Dudley said after a moment. 'Ooooh' Dudley said again. This time he realized what his cousin was talking about.

"That's brilliant!" The bigger boy exclaimed.

Later...  
><em><strong>Dudley<strong>_

Dudley stood up and hurried to the Heart Room. It was how they referred to the place where Ruby's 'brain' was located.

"Ruby, we need to talk. But I can't put it in words so could you..."

Ruby was already sending her heart from _**The**_** Vault.** It contained everything that her former master had decided was way too dangerous to use. Or to destroy. Ruby was under orders not to reveal any of it unless it was an emergency.

+You know you shouldn't ask this on a whim you know.+ Ruby warned him.

+I don't really mind but just remember that if something happens to my heart that I'm gone permanently.+

"I know." Dudley agreed. "But this is something I can't put into words. Besides, I want it to be a surprise for Harry."

Dudley made himself comfortable in the chair and secured the stone. That way it couldn't possibly fall onto the ground without undoing the safety belts.

Dudley opened his eyes to find himself in the familiar but still unsettling space of white nothingness. It reminded Dudley about that special room of an anime that he remembered. One day in 'normal' time was one year within.

Ruby sensed Dudley's thoughts and added a building. It was a mere illusion but it was something to orient you on.

"It isn't much, but it isn't as unsettling any more." Dudley said to Ruby. It isn't what I wanted to ask, but is it possible to do? Building a room where you can spend a year inside but that's actually only a day outside it?"

Ruby seemed to consider it for a while. "I'm not sure. It wouldn't be easy and it would no doubt take months if not years to even design the blueprints... Let alone actually built it." Ruby's voice came from everywhere at once. She wasn't comfortable in a human skin, despite it being only an illusion. And if she did she was naked. It wasn't something that Dudley or Harry was comfortable with.

"You mentioned the other day that you had a lot of vaults that were sealed because they held dangerous artefacts right?" Dudley questioned. "I'm not asking what's in them." He assured. "I just wanted to ask a few... reborical questions."

"I think you meant rhetorical Dudley." Ruby corrected gently.

"Rhetorical." Dudley repeated again. _"Right, I got to remember that. Rhetorical, rhetorical..."_

"I remember this game that was about to come out on computer." Dudley began slowly.

"It was about a secret project of course since it was a game and all. But what this did was that it gave the main character some incredible powers. I realize that I wouldn't be able to do most of them... But since Harry told me so many times that there aren't many limits when it comes to magic..." Dudley paused for a moment.

"I figured I might see if I could... Copy some of it."

"Such as? Ruby prompted.

"See, the reason I thought of this is because between harry and myself I am a warrior of sorts. You drilled it in our heads that the world outside the island is a really violent place. It's why you are teaching us combat first and the rest later." Dudley began.

"The main character had some awesome abilities. First he could change his hands into nasty looking claws. The character could change his entire arm into a blade too, and shift the other into a shield if it was needed. Since Harry covers me from a distance with magic, I am the only one left that can go personal if we have to fight." Dudley reasoned.

Ruby didn't know what to say. On one hand she could tell him that what he wanted was already covered... Should he activate it. On the other, she didn't know for sure what it actually did. Then there was **that** project that her old Master had forbidden her from ever activating again. But her old Master was dead. If Harry or Dudley ordered her to activate it... Then she would not have the choice of saying no.

It had been a pet project of her when she was younger. Much younger in fact. It had succeeded mostly except that it required you to pay a very high price.

It gave you a weakness to magic while at the same time blocking magic that would help. A low level fire spell would hurt the one as much as a high level spell and only the most powerful healing spells would only heal as much as cuts and bruises. Not only that but healing potions simply did not work. At all.

But her old master's commands were still valid. As long as Dudley or Harry did not tell her that all her old master's commands were invalid... She decided to act ignorant.

She would see how much Dudley wanted it and if he understood that **everything** had a price. No exceptions.

"What else?" Ruby asked again. "Or is this all you would want to have?"

"No. Not really." Dudley admitted outright. "This main character was very powerful. A front line fighter. Exactly the sort of character I should be here. He could go into a crowd of dozens of enemies and come out without a scratch. And since close combat is Harry's weakness... I want to be the person that will balance Harry's weakness out. Undo it so to speak." Dudley explained.

"Why not sum it up for me?" Ruby suggested nervously. She never was able to hide much from her previous master too. If Dudley got even a hint of THAT before he was ready...

Dudley was oblivious to it though. He was still too young and inexperienced to pay much attention to who he was talking too. Something that Ruby would have to change sooner or later. But right now? Most definitely later.

Ruby focussed her attention back on Dudley and what he was saying. Thankfully she hadn't missed too much.

"Like I was saying: limited shape shifting to make your own body parts into weapons. The main character was able to use his power to make throw able weapons too. Only they destroyed themselves after a while leaving no trace of them whatsoever." Dudley continued.

"It allowed the hero to use his power to change his clothing in a blink of an eye." Dudley explained in excitement. The thought of being able doing that excited him like nothing else.

"There were his weaknesses of course." Dudley said after a moment. "You can't have a perfect hero or the game would be boring. There wouldn't be any challenge. The hero was weak to high sounds and water." Dudley snickered.

"It's the best excuse to have when you don't want to take a bath I suppose." Dudley added. "I suppose I should add that the source of the hero's power was a sympione-"

"A what?" Ruby interrupted.

Dudley frowned for a moment and repeated what he said. "The source of the hero was a symbiont. A living being that needed to err bond with a human or a being in order to survive. Doing this it could hide itself within the hosts body so I suppose that the bath excuse wouldn't be valid after all."

"Bath excuse?" Ruby blinked. "What are you-" But then she remembered what Dudley had said earlier.

"Oh right. Never mind that." She interrupted herself sharply.

"Do you realize that there is a price too pay for the sort of power you are talking about master Dudley?" Ruby questioned cautiously.

Dudley didn't answer at first but eventually he nodded. "I think so. The heroes of the cartoons I used to watch had to pay all sorts of things. They didn't look like a human any more or their powers were dangerous to humans in ways they couldn't help." Dudley explained.

"But this would be real." Ruby reminded him gently. "It wouldn't be pretend at all. It could be a weakness that could hurt you very easily as well as those around you. Like master Harry for example."

Dudley was still a child. Younger than eleven years old just like his cousin. The last six months had forced him to grow up. Very literally. He didn't look younger than eleven years old at that moment. He looked like a young teenager instead. Probably thirteen or fourteen years old at least.

"I realize that Ruby." Dudley told her seriously. "Now, I want to stop using words and _send_ you my idea. I know you don't like to do it, but it's the only way I can think of to do it properly."

"Very well master Dudley. Just remember that it's because I don't liketo do it but because of the risks involved. You are still only human."

"And I won't be if what I have in mind is possible." Dudley reminded her. "As it is, I'm going to age like a normal human and live seventy to eighty years at best. Harry will be able to live for centuries without magical enhancements. Double that **with** magical enhancements and even longer with potions and a few rituals here and there. And that's without looking at enchanted equipment."

Ruby realized then and there that Dudley wasn't as stupid as he made himself appear. She activated all the safety measures she could think of and then activated the direct link with her oldest charge.

_**Harry**_

Harry watched Dudley leave with a frown. What was his cousin planning now? Harry shrugged and tried to ignore his curiosity. His cousin had just as much right at plotting as he did.

Wait.

Where had that thought come from?

Harry shook his head. Now wasn't the time for this sort of thing. It still amazed him how much he had changed in only six months time. Considering he wasn't even eleven years old and he actually looked like a teenager made him wonder if this meant he was aging a lot quicker too?

+You aren't aging faster master Harry.+ Ruby offered.

"Then why do I look so much older than I really am?" Harry wanted to know.

+I can't really answer that because I don't know. The best I can do is tell you my best guess.+

"oh?"

+Magic is in everything and anything. But in this tower, magic is a lot... Thicker or heavier. It's stronger. More powerful. More... Effective. And because you are a Mage, you suck it up like sponge and your body used this to its own advantage.+

it took Harry several long minutes to understand what Ruby was saying.

Harry shrugged. He would get it sooner or later. It just took a while sometimes. Harry still remembered the pride he felt when Ruby told him he could call himself a tenth rank in magic. Of course he felt a bit silly when she told him he could call himself that but only barely. It meant that he had the most minimal skill and knowledge in magic at the moment.

Knowing that he still had to rise three ranks before he could get to the official recognized ranks underlined just how far he had to go.

Harry lost interest in relaxing. He checked that Dudley was still busy and he was indeed. He went into the corner of the roof and touched three stones in a specific order revealing a secret passageway. Harry always had loved the secret doors and that sort of thing. To think that he now had the genuine thing! He was the proud owner of a true lair. It actually made him think he was a villain instead of a hero. A hero didn't have a lair after all. But an officially recognized headquarters.

Most of the time at least.

Shaking such thoughts away Harry refocused back on his studies. He would rise another rank before his next birthday in six months. He and Dudley had decided that their new birthday was the day they had arrived here.

"_Does that mean I'm technically six months old?"_

The thought of having to wear a diaper and such made sure he rejected the thought immediately.

"_It might be amusing to prank Dudley like that though."_ Harry mused.

Harry thought about what Dudley's retaliation would be and decided that he wouldn't do that. Dudley had a vicious bone in him a mile wide. If he pranked Dudley that way he would no doubt retaliate. Either by joining the game completely or doing the same to him.

Considering that Dudley was a LOT stronger than than him it would mean he was virtually powerless to stop his cousin if he tried something like that.

_**Drap**_

Two months after Naruto arrived

It had been an exhausting few months. The cold viscous winter season had arrived and already he was in trouble. His gathered supplies had been meant for him alone. Having a second person with him had drained a third of his supplies already and there was still another three months to go before the weather would **begin** to get warmer.

Drap was lucky that the Earth Mother had considered his request for aid valid. He was very reluctant to call on her aid again so quickly after the other. But Drap was determined if nothing else. He had been spending hours each day hunting for the last good berries and hunting for as much animals as he could.

He was lucky that his friends the wolf pack were such good hunters themselves.

Secret Mage Headquarters

"You are certain that The Artefact has reactivated?" And old man demanded.

"Yes sir." The one that made the report told him. "It means that either **HE **has been reincarnated or..."

"I know that the older man retorted. Tell our people to check all the new born babies within the last six months. Test them how much skill they might have and take the ones that have the most."

"What about the parents and the family? Not all of them will be willing to let their children go."

The elder man sneered at him. "Do what you wish. Kill them, tell some fake story about the devil for all I care. I just know that we CANNOT let **HIM** grow old enough to..." Here the elder man sneered like there was something he knew that the other didn't.

"We cannot allow him to join our guild." The elder man repeated.

"And should it happen that we miss him? The world is a big place after all."

"**He** will be attracted to the artifact in our possession. So one way or another he'll end up here. And when he does, he won't get the welcome he'll think he'll get. We'll make sure that he will never reincarnate again."

"B-but sir, That would mean- You would have to-"

"Don't tell me what that would mean or what I would have to do." The eldest man interrupted."You have your orders. Dismissed."

x

Kingdark: I have reached my first goal of two thousand five hundred words. I have at the moment I'm writing this, exactly that number. Let's see if I can reach five thousand this time around.

The ranks are based on Oblivion and are like this:

Unofficial:

10, 9, 8, 7

official

Novice, apprentice, journeyman, expert, master and Grandmaster.

Updated & Edited on 16/11/2011

KD


	4. 108 babies a year? Yikes!

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_My world will be referred to as '__**Maboroshi**_.'

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 04**

**Goal of 2,500 words:** **COMPLETED**

H&D Tower HQ

Dudley

Dudley came out of his conversation with Ruby and realized he had been talking with Ruby for hours. So long that he had missed the feeling to go to the bathroom. As a result he had done something that hadn't happened since he was in kindergarten.

Dudley cleaned the mess up, burned the clothing and then put the matter out of his mind. Ruby would never share what happened and if she did... Dudley had plenty of blackmail on Harry of his own. Particularly how long it took for him to get potty trained. Point was that Harry started nearly a year and a half behind him. There had been plenty of accidents during it.

Dudley put that out of his mind. Harry's history of being in diapers a year and a half after him didn't really matter. In fact they didn't matter at all.

Eighteen months later. 

(They've been in this world for two years.)

**Hello Peter Parker!**

Harry and Dudley left the tower at two different points. After a year and a half of training their abilities they were finally allowed to go into the more dangerous parts of the island. Before Ruby had judged them ready, those area's had been sealed of.

Dudley and Harry were still very weak compared to even the weakest warriors and Mages in the world. But they were improving rapidly. Considering that Mages and warriors here were trained from birth they had a big advantage in time and experience.

Then again, Harry and Dudley had the advantage of ingenuity at their side. They didn't know what could and couldn't be done.

If you wanted to compare them in a way one could truly understand the difference between Harry, Dudley and Mages and wizards trained here in Maboroshi you could look at it like this. Dudley and Harry are like children that have barely learned how to walk. They can take a few steps with some confidence but aren't nearly ready to _run_ if they don't want to fall on their face.

The natives however are like professional body builders slash super martial artists a la Ranma Saotome from Ranma ½ or dragon ball before it became a matter of cliché power ups and slugging each other to death. That doesn't exactly apply to Mages in general since they break their bones so easily but it does make it clear what the difference is between them.

It was when Harry and Dudley stood at the outskirts of the safety of the tower that the boys realized how large the island truly was.

While Dudley and Harry were both inferior compared to their counterparts that were born and raised at Maboroshi they still were superior to most wild animals. Harry and Dudley had to be extremely careful when dealing with magical creatures. Because they tended to be as smart or smarter as the average human genius.

Aside from teaching them how to defend themselves, Ruby had taught Dudley and Harry about politics. Or at least the bits that she understood. Which was to say very little. What Ruby did know was how to read body language and how to understand the subtleties of conversations.

While Ruby helped her new masters the best she could there were a number of things that she didn't share at all. One of these things were the monitoring devices that her former genius master had placed all around the world.

Ruby's former master had designed these monitoring devices so they would work in separate networks. With only one 'master' device capable of sending short bursts of information to the nearest network which would then repeat it until the information reached her.

That strategy had a number of weaknesses though. If a whole network were to be destroyed or disabled than there was a big chance that she couldn't be reached at all. And there had been no secondary plan to cover that possibility. The networks couldn't do something on their own, but the fact that the island was floating around the world meant that sooner or later they would come into contact with those networks again. And Ruby monitored where the island was going carefully.

She didn't have control as to where the winds were taking the island, but she did have a couple of tricks up her sleeve to redirect the island. Making the island go higher or lower would change how the wind blew.

With Harry and Dudley.

Harry and Dudley looked at the other. Both were hesitating to leave the safety of their home of the last two years.

They knew that if they failed to leave now, then not only would Ruby be very disappointed in them but their lessons would be doubled if not tripled.

"Leave the place of safety of the last few years, or go back and do the work times three?" Harry said quietly.

The decision was easy to make.

Both boys took a step then another and another. Several minutes later they were out of sight of the tower and in the forest.

While Ruby was incapable of creating any sort of avatar outside the tower, she could use her senses to monitor everything. She was the island after all. But especially the tower.

Both boys walked deeper into the forest with nothing stopping them. "This isn't so bad." Harry muttered to his cousin. Of course that's when typically things go to hell.

From the sides of the 'path' they were following a dozen odd looking creatures burst out of the bushes. These odd looking creatures could be best described as small odd looking humans but they were the size of a large toddler. If they weren't armed with crude looking weapons they would have started laughing at the sight of them.

This was it. Their first test.

Harry began to draw on his magic to make himself seem more threatening. These Gnomes were a defence. If they were to obey their orders they had to prove that they were 'alpha' so to speak. This was either done by a show of force... Or slaughtering everything and anything that came on their path.

The Gnome's ignored the show of force and charged at them.

There were a number of things that Mage apprentices tended to do before they grew experienced enough. They required the form of a 'focus' in one way or another. Either they said a word, did something with their hands or they used a 'wand' to shape their magic.

Once a Mage was experienced and strong enough this habit tended to be broken. Harry wasn't even close to this point so he used two ways to focus and control his magic. He had created a number of hand seals and a word to express what his magic did and how to control it. The word or words described what the spell did in one way or another and the hand seals controlled and formed the magic.

Using more than one focus was a way to hurry the experience along. In other words it would hopefully make sure that he no longer needed to use either a word or a hand seal.

"Ring of fire!" Harry growled. Which was followed by making a 'cup' with his two hands. Each finger of each hand touched the other.

Immediately a hot ring of flames erupted around them, frying a number of Gnomes that were too close already. The moment that Harry moved his hands to the side the fire vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Dudley had drawn his sword and was observing the surroundings very carefully.

The Gnomes backed away quickly. This was something they didn't know. Their brethren had perished by touching the warm stuff? And the easy looking prey had summoned the warm stuff so easily? There was only one solution now. The threat had to be killed before it could steal their territory.

Harry realized that his show of force hadn't been enough.

'Hail of arrows.' The boy muttered. He made the classic gun with his thumb and index finger.

Immediately arrows of fire erupted from his finger and killed the Gnomes instantly just before they would have alerted their tribes to a threat.

Five minutes later and only burned corpses remained. "You know that we have to destroy their homes now don't you?" Dudley said to Harry.

"I know." Harry agreed. "And I loath the very thought of having to do it. The only reason is so that they would obey our commands later. Are... Are we doing the right thing by doing this? Slaughtering dozens of those creatures?" Harry asked Dudley.

"I don't know Harry." Dudley admitted. "But if we don't then they will attack us. The whole forest will turn against us if we don't kill em now. To show that we are the boss."

Harry and Dudley followed the tracks of the Gnomes and found the home of the Gnomes. Dozens if not hundreds of Gnomes were moving about. Most of them females and children.

"I can't do it." Harry said simply. "I can't stand the thought of having to slaughter innocent children and females."

Dudley steeled himself. "Then I will do what you cannot."

"NO!" Harry argued. "You couldn't possibly kill them all without getting injured."

"Are you calling me WEAK?" Dudley growled. Keeping his temper in check but just barely.

"No!" Harry argued back.

Neither boy noticed the Gnomes had detected them and seemed to be listening to their conversation.

"I'm saying that it isn't right to attack a village full of children and err mothers. What if the warriors come back and you don't notice it? What if this is just a smaller village and they alert all the other settlements around in the area? I would have to use the most powerful spells I know to destroy them then. I don't want to kill them before I know for certain they are a threat. Maybe in a challenge or something I don't know!"

It was then that they noticed the silence around them. The fact that they were surrounded by the females and children of earlier. The fact that a dozen warriors seemed to be standing in the circle waiting for them to be noticed.

"I think that they have accepted your challenge Harry." Dudley muttered.

Harry gulped. "I think so too."

Dudley drew his sword again and this was apparently the sign for the warriors to attack.

Dudley charged at them and slashed at them. Cutting heads limbs and other body parts. Blood erupted from those body parts followed by cries of pain. Dudley froze in his tracks. Killing seemed all well in his fantasies but being confronted by the reality of it seemed to be something entirely different.

'Hail of arrows.' Harry growled. When he noticed that his cousin had stopped charging. This time Harry had used both hands to use as guns. Twice as much arrows erupted from the 'guns.' The arrows seemed to be locked into their targets.

Five minutes later and it was done. The warriors were all death. The remaining children and woman all fell onto their knees in a show of submission.

Harry tried to ignore the feeling in his stomach. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" Harry articulated carefully.

"Yes. But easy not." One of the elderly creatures said carefully.

Knowing that he couldn't show any weaknesses, Harry steeled himself. "I and Dudley will be your masters from now on."

"We obey." The elderly Gnome responded bitterly.

Harry's features softened. "I'm sorry that it had to be this way. I knew of no other way."

"Sorry you better not be! Sacrificed the warriors have for the village's good they have! Respect their sacrifice you will. Survive we will. No different it is when caught by the Hunters."

"The hunters?" Harry repeated curiously. "Like us but better. Faster. Stronger. Smarter. Have been fighting since I was a little $$$$. Many enemies we have. Giant spiders commanded by kin of you. Strong wulves that hunt us when the darkness comes. Scary eaters from underground hunt us every time the soft round circle visits."

"_Soft round circle? Could be be talking about the moon? Giant spiders don't sound good at all. Wulves might be wolves and I don't like the thought of scary eaters from underground."_ Harry thought to himself.

Focussing back to the present Harry didn't really know what to do now. Did he take them back to the tower? Or did he leave them here to fend for themselves?

"Tell me more about these Hunters." Harry ordered.

The old Gnome shrugged again. "They come and steal. Food. Water. They steal our $$$ and our females.

Harry frowned. The elder had used a word that hadn't been translated. Harry deduced that the elder had to be talking about children. From what he had said earlier and now again.

Harry looked at Dudley and realized immediately that Dudley was struggling to keep his temper in check. Dudley **loathed** creatures that stole children away. This dislike for children stealer's came not only because it just wasn't done but also because of Harry. Harry had been dropped of at their home like a bottle of milk.

This meant that Harry had to have been stolen from his rightful parents right? Neither boy believed that Harry's parents were dead. Why would they believe such a truth when they had been lied about other things before as well?

"Calm down Dudley." Harry muttered. "Take a deep breath. You can't afford to lose your temper here and now. You can trash the training room later."

Dudley looked like he wanted to protest but still took a deep breath to try and calm himself down.

"Are there more... places like this one?" Harry asked the elder. After Dudley had calmed down again.

"We are the last. The Hunters have taken others. To use as slave me thinks. Know not for what reason. Killed you have our last protectors. Helpless we are now if hunters attack again."

Harry glared at the Elder. "You are moving to my territory at the Tower. You will be able to train new warriors there without fear of attack. But you **will** be loyal to me and your warriors **will** obey my commands." Harry said slowly to make sure that the elder understood him.

"I'm not a harsh master." Harry told the Elder. "I won't order you to your deaths if it isn't needed. But if I find out you deceived me then you won't like my response. The tricks from earlier will seem like **nothing you have ever seen if you DARE TO BETRAY ME!**"

Then Harry smiled and acted like there was nothing wrong.

The elder swallowed nervously but still managed to keep his composure.

"Right then. By the power vested by Dudley and myself you are now promoted to a full advisor. Your people are my vassals and I will hold you responsible for their actions as well as their health and well being. Anything they need you will be able to get when I introduce you to Ruby. You may refer to me as 'Harry' in private and the immediate future. But when we are in public you **will** refer to me and Dudley as sir, master or whatever formal name that you use."

"That means that for the immediate future, just call me Harry and Dudley Dudley." Harry added with a smile.

+ The area directly out of the tower is indeed safe for anyone that's not authorized. So those Gnomes would be safe. The only problem is that there isn't much cover there. Nor is there a local stream for water or a source of food. I could provide in an emergency. I should also warn you that I recognize the Gnomes and that they can breed very quickly. +

"_Breed quickly? Just... How quickly is quickly?"_ Harry questioned.

+ Females can give birth to eight to twelve babies. They need only a month to give birth so considering... If you take an average of nine babies times twelve, assuming there are enough supplies a single female could give birth to one hundred and eight babies... If pregnant all the time. That wouldn't the healthy behaviour though so you can decrease it to seventy or sixty babies on average. Give or take. +

Harry swallowed nervously. _"Do we have the supplies for those kind of numbers?"_

+ Yes. +

"Do these gnomes have the numbers to sustain such high breeding?"

+ Yes. +

"Then it is decided I suppose." Harry muttered. He glanced at the elder and the woman and children that were watching him. "Prepare yourselves to move to the tower. That area is safe and will not allow any predator to move closer. Dismissed."

**END**

There you have it folks. After so much delay I finally get another chapter out. A big incredible thanks out to my loyal friend and suggester MCV.

KD


	5. A Hunter that looks like a Pig!

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_My world will be referred to as '__**Maboroshi**_.'

Edited on 16/11/2011

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 05**

**Goal of 1,500 words: Completed.**

**Goal of 2,500 words:** **Completed.**

**Goal of 3,500 words: Completed.**

**Goal of 4,500 words: Failed.  
><strong>

MINOR HORROR WARNING.

I attempted (and failed) to write a very scary number of scenes. I'm not good at it but I did my best. Don't say you haven't been warned.

I want to thank MCV for all his excellent work on brainstorming and just regular chatting. He is now working on writing a decent horror scéne AND writing a new battle scéne too! Since my own attempt was just too pathetic.

Chapter 05

The Elder turned his back to go and take care of his kin. Dudley pointed something out that Harry had obviously missed. "Do you realize that these Hunters were keeping their population down?" Dudley asked Harry.

"Huh?" Harry hadn't been listening. "What was that Dudley?"

"I said that it is very possible that these Hunters were the natural predators of these... Gnomes." Dudley said again.

"Taking them to the tower within the safety bubble would take all their prey away. Unless there are other villages or settlements in the area."

Harry considered that for a moment and decided that Dudley was right. "You're right. But surely these can't be the only ones. If we killed those 'warriors' so easily then they can't be that dangerous." Harry reasoned.

Dudley chose not to point out that it was mostly Harry's work that had killed them. He himself had frozen up. He would probably have nightmares from taking a life for a long time. Dudley wondered how he would react if and possible when he was forced to take a human life. He shuddered.

"_God, I hope that will never happen. But if Ruby is right than it is a foolish thing to hope for."_

Ruby had said again and again that this world was dangerous. People were being killed everyday and the 'law enforcement' was barely able to keep the 'nobles' safe and secure.

"What do we do then?" Harry asked. "Do we establish a new village outside the safety bubble or do we take them with us until they recovered their numbers somewhat?"

"Those Hunters might not be natural predators at all you know." Harry pointed out. " It was unlikely but Harry felt it had to be pointed out.

'No.' Dudley responded immediately. "The chances of these Hunters NOT being predators are low. They haven't had human interaction in centuries. The chances they lied are very low."

Dudley and Harry were glaring at each other, each tempted to just charge at the other. It was Dudley that forced himself to calm down. Him being the eldest by a year meant he always felt responsible for 'little Harry' as he sometimes referred to him.

Either for teasing or to taunt him when they were sparring. Either way, Harry hated to be called 'little' in any way shape or form.

"This is not the time or the place to get angry." Dudley said calmly. "Take a deep breath, calm down and save that pent up anger for when we are sparring. Not when we are in the middle of a forest where we might be attacked because we are making TOO MUCH NOISE!"

Harry fell onto the floor in anime style. Why did Dudley warn him about making too much noise when he was shouting at the end himself?

Harry bit back his words and went into the village where the gnomes were rallying and gathering their possessions."

The settlement was very primitive but still in a good location. Near a source of water and close to bushes where berries grew all year except in the coldest winter months. It was about fifteen minutes later when the wizard and warrior looked each other up because of the nervous atmosphere.

"I'm getting nervous." Harry admitted immediately when he saw Dudley.

"The forest shouldn't be so quiet." Dudley told his younger cousin. "We should head back. I don't like it here any more. We can try again tomorrow. Set up camp. Set up a few traps and defences. We lost too much time here."

Both boys were making their way back to the tower. The gnome population was long gone. They were surprisingly quick in taking their possessions and getting out of there. It was obvious that they were used in having to move quickly.

"Why do I have the feeling that we are like flies heading to a trap of a spider?" Harry muttered. Both boys stopped in their tracks. Harry preparing his magic for an attack and Dudley cautiously moving his hands to his weapons so he could get them out of their holders quickly.

"We should have asked what a Hunter is." Harry said to Dudley.

"I know." Dudley agreed.

"We don't know what to expect. Can it fly? Is it a predator? Does it attack from the trees? From underground?"

"Stop it Dudley." Harry ordered. "You are giving me the creeps." The atmosphere became even scarier when the death cry of an animal was heard nearby. Followed by a roar of triumph which was followed by several more. It hinted that it wasn't a single predator but at least a handful.

The tension was getting so thick that any sudden noise would put Harry and Dudley over the edge and have them running as quickly as they could.

"Whatever we do," Dudley began. "We **cannot **run**.**" Dudley stressed urgently.

"Predators can smell fear. Right now it's still undecided if we are prey or not. But if we run we will decide for it. We cannot give in to our fear." Dudley instructed firmly.

Branches being snapped caused the two boys to focus their attention on that. Several deer were fleeing from something. Probably the predators they just heard howling.

One of the younger deer, a cute looking Bambi abruptly stopped in its tracks. Neither boy noticed the tentacles until it was too late. The poor baby deer was struggling for all it was worth but the tentacles were slowly suffocating it all the while dragging it into the bushes.

Dudley snapped out of it and cut the tentacles in half, allowing the deer to escape. The tentacles snapped back into the bushes while _**something**_ growled in pain as the tentacles were cut off.

Not a sound was heard for several long moments except for the quiet bustling of the leaves that was caused by the weak wind that was blowing. This sound was interrupted by low threatening growls that surrounded the entire area.

"I think these beasts are smarter than we though." Harry muttered. His emotions caused his magic to lay closer to his skin than in normal circumstances. It was eager to destroy whatever was causing its master such distress.

Deciding that taking some pre-emptive action was the best thing to do, Harry used one of the few higher level spells he knew off. It would drain his reserves by a good third but it was worth it.

**'Ring of fire.'** Harry announced clearly. This time he only used his words as a focus. No gestures or anything else.

Just like the name of the spell suggested, Harry's magic created a ring of magic that was lighting the area up and at the same time it was hot enough to keep anything smart from attacking. The downside was that the '**ring of fire'** only had a limited amount of height. So attacking from above was still an option.

The moment that the area was cleared up thanks to the fire, vague shadows with red eyes were seen in the bushes before they disappeared.

The red eyes kept appearing and disappearing at random times. It was hypnotizing to watch.

Harry's focus wavered and so did the fire. It was only thanks to Ruby that they snapped out of it.

+ HARRY AND DUDLEY SNAP OUT OF IT DAMMIT! +

It was unfortunate that Harry's focus had wavered enough for the ring of fire to be ineffective. Getting it to its strongest point would require the same amount of magic and then some. Harry concluded this in a mere second and promptly decided that it wasn't worth the effort.

Harry snapped the connection with a thought and instead used a hot form of attack. Pun intended.

'**Fire Fire Fire'** Harry chanted. With each word another ball of fire erupted from his hands and into the bushes. It was only because Harry had mastered this particular spell thanks to countless hours of practice that it only hurt the target and nothing else.

Dudley had his sword out and was ready for action. He was encircling his cousin to cover him from as much sides as possible. That's of course when his inexperience struck.

These Hunters were smart enough to cause a distraction. Keep their target focus on one thing and attack from a blind spot. That meant from above.

The Hunters from above had difficulties getting closer because of the fireballs that Harry threw at anything that moved. The balls of fire were not only bright enough to light everything up, but it was hot enough to turn its target into ashes after an **excruciating** amount of pain.

Even though these targets were way smarter than your average predator they still feared fire. And it was only because of this that the hunters that were ready to strike from above hesitated to attack their prey.

Several minutes passed but it was like an eternity for Harry. Dudley was still relatively fresh. Harry had been chucking out enough magic that he was nearly at his last.

**FIREBALL!** Harry snarled. The new fireball was about three times as big as your regular UK football which split into a dozen separate directions **_without_** losing their size. If anything the fireballs grew even larger thanks to the air they greedily sucked up.

The two boy's concentration weakened again when Ruby contacted them again.

+ Don't lose your focus boys! I'm getting you out of there! Just hold on for a few moments longer! + Ruby encouraged them.

Neither of the two boys knew it, but the gnomes had betrayed them nearly immediately. Apparently they feared the hunters more than they feared Harry and Dudley. Either that or they were too stupid too realize the power that the two boys had.

A few minutes before with Ruby

Ruby had followed the interaction with the two boys and concluded that they wanted some allies. And stupid allies were better than smart ones in some cases. However, the moment they were allowed within the protective bubble of the tower, the gnomes charged the base as one. Ruby who still hadn't had a chance to activate her defence force was now cursing herself for her own laziness.

She was forced to tap into her energy reserves again to call down some serious Fire power.

Ruby had no problem killing them off without survivors. Though she just hurt the youngest. They could be trained later. And since they could breed really quickly... Ruby knew for a fact that this wasn't the only tribe of gnomes on the island. Unfortunately she didn't know where any other tribes could be. The island had grown over the centuries to accommodate new animals as they grew.

Ruby was proud to say that her island was now as large as Ireland! If it should ever be invaded, the attacker would need to cut through all sorts of traps, objects and wild animals.

After she dealt with the cannon fodder she focussed back on her two charges.

"_What the hell?"_ Ruby wondered. How the hell did THOSE animals get this to her tower?

Back to the present

+ I'm going to use the emergency transport in five seconds. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. NOW +

When Harry and Dudley vanished the pack of Hunters roared with fury. Not only had its minions failed to take the tower, but these two creatures had actually been able to hurt it! After ruling the island's forests for generations! This would not do. This would not do at all. They would gather, attack the human dwelling and raze it to the ground!

The pig like creature with tentacles on its body rushed of to warn its brothers and sisters.

War and violence were coming. It would make sure of it!

* * *

><p>"What the hell was that thing?" Harry and Dudley asked at exactly the same time.<p>

+ That was the Hunter. And it should have been much, **much**, **MUCH **deeper into the forest. +

"I want that thing dead!" Dudley snarled. "I want it deader than an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh!" He added for good measure.

"Where did _that _come from?" Harry wondered momentarily.

+ I'm afraid that would be very difficult to do. The Hunters work in packs and are about as intelligent as an adult human. + Ruby interrupted.

+ Hunters are feared creatures. They are known for their pack mentality and their violence. These hunters are not only extremely difficult to kill but once they have a target. The only way to get rid of them in one way or another is to bash them into the ground. Over and over again. Hunters were once very common on the continents. But they were hunted to near extinction even when my mastered wandered the world in his time. + Ruby explained.

+ The only known hunter packs not hunted on the main lands are known to be in the deepest parts of the darkest forests. If anyone but an extremely large and very well prepared hunting party would try to hunt them... It is certain death. That is why certain governments have used those grounds to execute their biggest and most evil criminals. They wouldn't stand a chance either way. + Ruby paused for a moment to let this sink in.

+ There is of course the fact that their hide is worth a lot of coin. So is every body part for that matter. Their meat is known as one of the best delicacies that only the richest can afford. Which is why they've been breeding them purely for that purpose as well to sell their body parts. It's also why most people of today dismiss Hunters as a tale to scare children. Should you ever try to prove yourself Alpha to them, then you would have a large number of experienced predators under your command... As long as you feed them of course. It is... Unfortunate you encountered it now and stole its food. +

"Unfortunate?" Harry repeated. "You say it is UNFORTUNATE?" Harry shouted at Ruby. "We were nearly eaten alive!" Harry's voice was rising and becoming a touch hysterical.

Of course there was the fact that Ruby was a magical tower. It wasn't influenced by anger or hysteria. So it responded like any typical magical tower that happened to have the personality of your typical grandmother would react.

+ Calm down the both of you! + Ruby ordered.

+ I don't care how scared you were. You will NOT work it out on those around you understand? I will put you in a time out if you don't behave. +

Dudley snorted. "That's not a punishment for kids our age you know." Dudley protested.

+ Perhaps not. + Ruby agreed. + But unlike regular parents, I can watch the both of you at the same time twenty four seven. I would be able to know exactly when you broke it. And don't think I won't do it either + Ruby threatened.

"You can't do that!" Dudley protested. "Aren't you supposed to obey us?" Dudley demanded.

+ I am. + Ruby agreed.

+ But you and Harry gave me leave to punish you if you deserve it. And I consider twelve and eleven years old to be still **VERY** young. In fact, considering my age you're nothing but babies!+ The threat was clear. Behave or I'll humiliated you!

"When did we do that?" Harry wondered.

+ When the both of you communicated with me directly for the first time. Both of you wanted someone or something you could rely on. That desire was fairly permanent and gives me leave to punish the both of you. Be glad that you haven't misbehaved enough for me to carry out my threat. Because believe me **I would.** +

Harry and Dudley paled at the thought. Neither of them wanted to be treated like a two year old. No way.

Harry crashed, burned and crushed the tiny voice into nothingness that had whispered that Harry had not had a real childhood. Or a babyhood for that matter (if you wanted to call it that way at least).

Harry couldn't remember much. But he remembered feeling uncomfortable a lot of the time.

Harry and Dudley were not calming down at all. Ruby would have sighed if she would have had a body.

+ If you don't calm down, I'll force you two in a nap as well. + Ruby threatened. Since the threat had no immediate effect, Ruby executed her threat with extreme efficiency.

Ruby knocked both boys out, undressed them and put them in their pyjama's. It wasn't like she had any reason to be shy. She was a tower. She didn't care much about nudity. The same went for Dudley and Harry too. They had been bathed together often enough when they were smaller. They had no secrets for each other. Though they still liked **girls**.

The next morning

Harry woke up groggily. The memories of the last day coming back one by one. When he remembered the confrontation with the Hunter he nearly lost control of his bladder again. Harry shook his head. It was one thing to do **that** in the face of death, but there was no excuse in losing control with just the memory.

"_'Well, not unless the memory was really, __**really**__ scary."_ Harry corrected himself though he would never admit that fact to anyone else.

After a thorough bath and going to the toilet Harry left the bathroom again and noticed that it hadn't been used before he had entered.

"_Was Dudley up before me? I thought I had more resistance to magic then he did? Which reminds me."_

'Ruby?' Harry called.

+ Yes master Harry? +

"Please do not put us to sleep unless it is a serious emergency." Harry requested. He paused.

"You have my full and official permission to punish the two of us if we misbehave. But nothing that lasts more than a few hours though. Unless we really, **seriously** went over the line." Harry told her.

+ I understand master Harry. Does this mean that threatening to treat you like a toddler is out too?"

Harry blinked. _"Where did that question come from?"_ Harry wondered. "Threats only but you can do so if we deserve it. Though I much prefer alternate punishments." Harry admitted.

If Ruby could have blinked she would have. She had only been joking. Now and yesterday too. She wouldn't have carried her threat out at all. But now that she had some sort of permission... What did this mean?

+ _I'm confused. +_ Ruby thought to herself.

"That reminds me. Where is Dudley?"

+ He's throwing a big tantrum on the roof. +

Harry blinked. _"Oh boy. I think I gave that permission a touch too early. But I'm in luck. As long as Dudley doesn't attack me out of anger, or does something equally as stupid he might get off with being embarrassed only."_ The boy wizard thought.

* * *

><p>It had been a long time since Dudley had felt this angry. And not the 'I want this and you say no and now I'm faking crying and screaming to get my way' kind of angry either. This was the genuine anger out of disappointment for yourself.<p>

"I froze after killing that gnome." Dudley muttered to himself.

SLASH

STAB

CRUSH

"I panicked and I nearly lost Harry and my life." Dudley continued.

STAB-TWIST-CRUSH

KICK-IN-THE-NUTS

STAMP STAMP STAMP

"I RISKED THE LIFE OF MY CLOSEST FRIEND AND THAT OF MY OWN!" Dudley roared.

SWORD IGNITES INTO FLAMES

CRRRUUUUUUUSH

The second last target turned not into broken pieces but into ash.

Dudley screamed his anger and anguish and charged the last target to kill it in close combat.

Kick. The 'legs' of the dummy broke.

Smash. There goes the use of its hands.

Snap. Snap. No more use of the hands.

And finally.

SSSNAP.

Broken neck and the dummy didn't move any more.

Dudley was breathing hard, the last few attacks had drained all of his stamina.

Harry opened his mouth to say something now that it appeared that Dudley's anger had dissipated. Harry was interrupted before he could say anything though.

Dudley's anger was far from gone. It had been there since they got here but safely under control. Now that he was confronted with his failures, the defences around that anger had been weakened. Weakened to the point that they barely existed.

In another lifetime, their home never burned down. They never got here and they never became as close as they were now. In another lifetime Dudley would grow up disliking anything 'different' until he was saved by Harry from Dementors. In another lifetime, a small tiny little gene never activated.

Because of the emotional imbalance that Dudley now felt, this tiny little gene activated. This gene also was known to cause various effects. Few scientists could explain the purpose of the gene. How, why and when it was activated was also cause for arguments. But for all intents and purposes, this story assumes that the gene activates under emotional stress.

Dudley fainted from his workout and his emotions getting the better of him. The gene within his body had activated and was adjusting Dudley's body for its own purposes.

End

Chapter is about a thousand words longer than usual.

Next time will re-focus on Naruto while he is still in the past from 'this' point of view.

K


	6. Your friendly neighborhood SpiderMan

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_My world will be referred to as '__**Maboroshi**_.' Just think of earth with only a few exceptions which will be explained thoroughly.

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

Edited on 16/11/2011**  
><strong>

**Chapter 06**

**Goal of 1,500 words:****Completed.**

**Goal of 2,500 words:****Completed.**

**Goal of 3,500 words:****Completed.**

**Goal of 4,500 words:** **No.**

Total word count: 4400 (with notes)

**Chapter start**

We return to Naruto's point of view. This happens BEFORE H&D arrive here.

After the exhausting night, Drap went about his usual way. He checked Naruto over an tried to keep him as healthy as possible. Since Naruto was too weak to get up, let alone wash himself or even eat by himself, Drap had to do it for him. It was embarrassing but the connection the two had with the other was still strong to have created some serious trust.

Besides. Drap was a druid. A man of nature. He didn't care about nudeness at all. Thankfully, Naruto was recovering at an astonishing rate. Where Drap had predicted that Naruto would need months to recover, he did so in only a few weeks. By then winter had arrived and they were completely stuck at the cave.

It was thanks to Drap's familiar and his pack that they managed to get enough supplies to last through the winter.

It was a shame that they lived so far up north. It meant that when the first snow fell, it would stay until the warm spring sun would melt it again.

Time skip to the end of the winter

Several months had gone by and finally, that pesky snow was melting. For the first time in months, both men could walk outside without being forced to flee back inside because of the cold.

The beginning of spring

Drap and Naruto had been preparing their supplies for weeks. They were about to head south. It would take approximately three months make the journey. It would throw their pursuers off hopefully.

While Naruto had no chance in becoming a Druid whatsoever there were a few things that Drap could teach him. On the big scale of things it wasn't much but it would be very helpful if he needed to flee. Drap was teaching Naruto to find his animal soul. It was either a familiar or an animal form he could become. Or both.

Right now, Drap was betting on Naruto getting the familiar and not the animal form.

The big day they would leave

Naruto was watching the place that had been his home for months with a touch of sadness. It didn't have any decent form of technology or comfort save what Nature could give them but it had made him feel relaxed. He was able to forget the faces of those he had killed when he was younger.

Naruto took one more look around and then left the cave without looking back.

"You ready to go Master?" Drap questioned.

"I am." Naruto agreed. "Let's get going. We have a long way to go and even with my chakra enhanced speed it will still take us weeks to get there."

Naruto had tried to convince Drap to refer to him as something else than master. But it had been pointless. The bond that existed between the two of them prevented it. Then there was the fact that Drap didn't want to call Naruto anything but Master.

"How long do you think it'll take us to get through the forest?" Naruto asked curiously. Studying this new world hadn't been a priority. And Drap was fairly clueless about that sort of thing as well.

"I suppose it will take us about two weeks to get through it. Then about a day or three maybe four to reach the nearest village. From there we can purchase our supplies and maybe a map."

"So nearly a month already just to get out of here and into the bare minimum of civilization" Naruto concluded.

"Yes. I suppose so." Drap agreed.

"And here I though we would be able to do it in a few months." Naruto complained to himself.

"We'll be lucky if we get there before winter arrives again." Drap corrected.

It took the both of them actually four weeks and a few days to get there. Unexpected bad weather among other things slowed them down. The fact that Drap's familiar had taken his pack with them to escort them complicated matters slightly. The other wolf packs didn't tolerate their presence and attacked them several times.

It was because of their superior strength that the wolves backed off. When they reached their first village in months, it appeared that it had been abandoned for a few weeks already. A month at the longest tops. The cause for this was immediately obvious because of the hideous smell. The whole place stank so badly that was barely tolerable. Especially for Naruto and his more sensitive nose.

Drap was able to show off some of his awesome powers that he was able to 'clean' the air. Both men hurried as quickly as they could to dig a mass grave and throw the bodies in it before closing it off again.

The spell only worked so long and they couldn't waste the time to dig separate graves for each. Besides they were dead. Naruto and Drap were still determined to search the village though. If only to loot it for some valuables, food and other supplies.

Neither was worried about becoming sick. Naruto with his tenant had an incredible resistance against it and Drap enjoyed the protection against poison that all Druids had.

They didn't want to press their luck though so they hurried through it.

They found a girl that was still alive but in the latest stage of the illness. It was the first subject that caused a fight between Naruto and Drap.

Drap wanted to cut her suffering short and end it permanently. Naruto wanted to try and save her. It was in his nature to do so. The matter was taken out of their hand when she just died. One moment she was breathing fairly regularly, the next she was very still. If the two man hadn't been arguing they would've noticed it and perhaps prevent her from dying. But they did not notice it and so she died.

It was a sore point between Drap and Naruto. But eventually they got over it. Still, the first crack in their friendship had been made and it had only been repaired on the surface. Deep down they resented the other for distracting them and letting the girl suffer.

They had looted the village for everything they could use and then burned it. They did not want the disease to be spread so they worked together to seal the village off and create a literal sphere of fire that would kill all the nasty microbes still hanging around.

Normally, something like this required at least a dozen druids or magic users. But since Naruto had Kage Bunshin at his command and his own reserves were very impressive they managed to do it with just the two of them.

When the sphere released itself only burned ground and dust remained. And that was fixed with a specially designed ninjutsu he had stolen from Orochimaru. The very same that had separated him from his team-mates in their first and only chuunin exam as a team.

That scattered the dirt in all directions. It was followed by a simple ritual that would restore the ground to full 'value' in a matter of years. It wouldn't be a quick process but in ten years you would never guess there had been a village here.

Both men left the village to the south. It had a dirty path that led to a small river. According to the small map they had found it would end up in a bigger river. They would then follower the river downstream and hope they could find another village.

Another advantage was that they could fish. It was something else then the dry meat and berries they had left.

Naruto hadn't exactly cried when he realized he had eaten his last cup ramen but he had been very angsty for a whole day.

He was lucky that fish was something universal. You could find it anywhere always. It was about two months after they had left the cave that they ran into their first trouble. A small Noble had heard through word of mouth that two strangers were fishing in HIS river. That wouldn't do so he sent a unit of soldiers to... Invite them to his castle.

That wasn't counting on the fact that Naruto and Drap were moving faster than your average traveller. But either way they would get into his town eventually. Unfortunately for this particular noble he had been a naughty boy. Abusing his peasants and pushing them hard without enough food and water. This would not only set off Naruto's code of honour but that of Drap's too.

And you did not want a Druid angry at you! Who cared about some blond midget? If only he knew...

Naruto hadn't been known as the most surprising ninja of Konoha for nothing. He had had plenty of practice with his practical jokes all over town. Excellent way to practice your trapping and evading.

Now he realized that they had just been humouring him. But at that age he had just been proud as hell that he could evade them as long as he did.

Two days later of of their form of fast travel and they finally reached another village. Thankfully this one was still active. No sick people except for the elderly. It was a small place though. Barely a hundred people. Everybody knew everybody and were probably related to the other in one way or another.

The two travellers were able to buy themselves a bed for the night and a decent meal too. They had found the majority of their funds in the village they had found a few days ago. Except for that gold they were as broke as anyone. So they had to be very careful how they spend their money.

After a good night sleep both of them left as promptly as they had arrived. Neither noticed the dove that had been released late in the evening.

Naruto & Drap had been able to buy a map and a few basic supplies. It wasn't much but considering the size of the village that wasn't hard to believe.

The next stop would be the 'capital' of the region. It wasn't the capital of the country by any means but it had enough citizens that you couldn't possibly know everyone.

It was actually several hundred kilometres from their current location. Neither was in any real hurry. Aside from the fact that Drap's old masters might come locking for him... Drap wasn't a push over and neither was Naruto. Naruto was a veteran when it came to battles. From what Drap had told Naruto they would not be able to defend themselves against someone like him. His speed, style of battle and his chakra powered ninjutsu would most likely overwhelm his enemies at first.

It would take them several days at their relaxed pace to reach the 'capital' of the region. (not the country) And it was where they would face their first enemy out of many.

Switching to our fourth character

Unknown time and place

First Point Of View

Alarms are ringing, smoke is coming from places that shouldn't be smoking and the air reserves are leaking into space.

I attempt to correct the craft with the little I know of it, but **he** had it for months. Who knows what sort of traps he managed to prepare, let alone what technology **he** added.

I work as quickly as I can to take care of every problem. Doing a job that's supposed take several people is not easy I can tell you that. Finally after an hour of rushing around while at the same time keeping a careful eye on the autopilot the last alarm is silenced.

I walk back to the pilot's seat when I'm face to face with one of my worst and frankly; one of my worst fears as well.

A symbiote.

I watch it very carefully and tense all of my muscles. I'm prepared to evade it at a moment's notice. From what little I remember during the time that **Venom **or that other one had me as a host I know they can sense very little without a host. If they are 'just' born they are actually blank plates so to speak. They are just as... Innocent as a newborn. Though they do have genetic memory so I suppose they aren't as stupid as one.

I have very little choice at the moment. The only way that I can get rid of it would to seal the air producer and open the airlocks until it's sucked into space. I can't do that though because I don't have a airtight sealed suit. My personal suit can handle high heights but not the void in space. I would most definitely die.

Even though my suit would at least give me some protection I can't use it because it's energy is drained that it barely works any more. I had to leave in a hurry after all.

I frown as I remember that I had to leave all my newly made allies. But I couldn't leave MJ on **my** Earth. I just couldn't. I've been away too long as it is.

I glance back at the symbiote. It seemed happy to observe me for now. And I can't ignore the console for too much longer.

I've decided. I'll just ignore it and deal with it when and not if it tries to bond with me. I got rid of it once, I can do so again! I nod to myself and focus on the console.

I realize that the shuttle craft finally stabilized.

I instructed the computer to tell me how much fuel and power I got left.

Total Fuel tanks: 4

Fuel tank 1: Five percent left

Fuel tank 2: Ten percent left

Fuel tank 3: Five percent left

Fuel tank 4: Ten percent left

Power failure imminent,

Recommendation: Transfer all remaining fuel into one tank and get rid of the others to lower weight

I consider my options. I don't really know if it would make much difference to gather all the fuel in one tank. And wouldn't getting rid of three tanks do something to the balance of this shuttle craft?

See, that's why you shouldn't try and fly a NASA shuttle craft WITHOUT knowing what you are doing.

I finally make my decision. I tell the computer to divide the remaining fuel into two equal shares in two tanks. That should hopefully keep things balanced.

I frown when the computer tells me this is not a recommended action. Doubts are beginning to eat at me but I shake my head and go through with it. There is no point in hesitating or changing your mind.

I tell the computer that I'm sure of it.

I hear a pump activating and a new screen activates telling me the status of the transfer. This is when things went bad.

Alarms started whining and eventually I found out why.

The four tanks were all losing fuel constantly. But because of the lack of any pressure the loss was at a minimum. By dividing the fuel I put pressure on it and now...

I immediately stop the transfer but it was already too late. Now I got only two tanks left. The first two drained into space and the other two...

Just my luck that is was the two tanks that only had five percent left.

I realize I need to get to earth as soon as possible. So I carefully steer the ship into the general direction. I know that once something gets a certain speed in space it won't ever stop. Not until it has something to slow down itself. Thank God for National Geographic and video games!

If my position was bad at first it was practically pointless now. I disabled the engines and I'm letting the craft bring itself closer to Earth. I try to listen into the radio but it is oddly quiet. Come to think of it, shouldn't there be a lot more crap in orbit around earth? Like countless of satellites for example!

I hook my 'hero suit' into the electric network and allow it to charge a few percent. Thankfully the energy creating methods are extremely sufficient. So with a bit of luck I can get I charged to about fifteen percent before I have to stop it. But fifteen percent is better than nothing though.

I consider to let the symbiote to take me as a host for a brief moment but discard it immediately after. I don't know how it will react. For all I know it might panic and waste all of the precious energy I got left.

Another alert comes up and I realize why. The full might of the sun was about to hit me. I hit the anti sun glasses and they activate immediately. The shuttle darkened because all the windows activated their anti sun glasses.

Lights flickered on and that caused yet another effect.

I growl with irritation as I watch my precious fuel decreasing to nothing. I realize that I need to either use all the fuel now or let it be wasted! I thank whatever designer that put the air system on a separate circuit.

I activate the engines again and flared them at full power. I literally feel the shuttle craft jumping into action like a horse that's feeling the whip on its ass.

I watch the fuel drain away until there was nothing left. I hear the engines sputtering and dying out. I realize that I might... have made a big mistake. I remember too late that there is an emergency tank to drain the fuel too if the outer tanks were to be damaged. I realize that this tank was on a separate circuit too and that it might have fuel too!

I pray to whatever Deity is listening that it got some left.

I open the program and tell it to analyse the back up tank.

(emergency tank reserve)

ETR: one hundred percent left.

I allow a smile on my face and tell the computer to prepare to shuffle some fuel in all four tanks. I remember that this shuttle craft came equipped with some of the newest technology, an auto repair function the military kept hush hush about.

I activate the function immediately as a result.

I feel the shuttle moving about as if it was shivering when new alerts went off. I looked back at the main window and realize that we were about to enter Earth's atmosphere!

"No! Not now!" I shout in frustration.

Back to normal point of view.

(cause I suck doing it first person style)

Peter forced himself to calm down. The shuttle craft entered the atmosphere so it was too late to do anything about it. Various alarms went off as parts broke all around. Peter was about to activate his suit when he hesitated. He knew that **venom **and the other guy were not exactly sane. But would he abandon them in the vacuum of space?

No.

He wouldn't even do that to killers. He had proven that when he had caught that thief that was cause for the death of his uncle Ben.

"Me and my morals." Peter muttered to himself. _"I better get it over with."_ Peter touched the symbiote and prodded it a few times. The symbiote seemed to hesitate and unwilling to bond with him.

"C'mon!" Peter urged it. "Do you really want to die here?"

The symbiote apparently changed its mind as it seemed to grow larger and thicker the more it touched his hand. Five minutes later and it had overtaken his entire body. And then it was gone. It had gone beneath his skin and gave Peter the mental image of 'Busy now, talk late.'

Peter shrugged it off. He had other things on his mind now.

Peter guided the space craft as well as he could. His symbiote trying to help as best as it could by carefully sharing its experience with her host.

Finally, the shuttle craft broke through and was beginning to get out of control. Peter attempted to bring the shuttle into a gliding position but failed. More and more alarms went off as the shuttle began to shake from the speed and wind alone. They broke through the clouds and Peter's eyes widened with shock when he realized there was a fricking FLOATING ISLAND and they were headed straight for it!

Not wasting second, Peter hit the parachute button which slowed the shuttle down significantly. It still wasn't enough though so Peter turned around, prepared himself and opened the airlocks. He was immediately sucked into the open air and into the sky. Peter used his experience in web making and made himself an emergency parachute until he was close enough that he would survive the crash.

"_Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"_ Peter Parker also known as spider man wondered privately. Peter crashed into the tree's despite the parachute slowing him down. When he found himself at the ground of the island he released a sigh in relief. "Thank the gods that's over." The reporter muttered. Of course that's when things tended to go from 'okay' to 'Oh no, I'm about to die.'

**'ALERT DANGER'**

" Spider sense? Where?"

'Left?'

'Right?'

'Down?'

'No UP!'

Peter looked up to the sky and cursed. Of course the shuttle craft would head straight for HIS position. Out of all the places it could crash it had to be where he was standing.

Peter was glad at that moment he had the symbiote with him. He just remembered that he was at the last of his own mix of webbing.

Peter barely managed to create several catching nets to slow it down and perhaps save some of it before diving out of the way.

The shuttle craft crashed into the forest with as much violence you'd think there was a war going on. Peter flinched at the incredible noise. "_I sure hope there aren't any critters the size of a T-Rex."_ Peter muttered to himself.

He tended to joke around with lame jokes if he was nervous. Of course he should have remembered that when he said or even thought that sort of thing it would go from relatively bad to absolutely 'HELL NO.' Like demonstrated earlier.

Peter turned around only to see himself face to face with what looked like giant... Pigs. And they all looked pissed at seeing him.

The giant pigs or GP's (pronounced chips / ships as a joke) charge him head on.

Thanks to Peter's years as a superhero he was experienced enough in hand to hand combat to deal with them. Except he hadn't counted on his enhanced strength. Where he had meant to knock them out, he knocked their heads off. Literally. He snapped bones, necks and other body parts where he didn't mean too.

Peter was too busy trying to survive than to worry about the fact he was killing. From what he remembered of the island there weren't any obvious human settlements except that tower. So he would made his way there.

Poor Peter. He didn't realize that he was proving himself Alpha to these stupid little...chips... Also known as giant pigs.

When the fight was over Peter released a sigh. "That was close." He turned around and realized something.

"Don't tell me those were baby pigs?" The scientist whined if only to himself.

Because in front of him were two giant versions of the smaller versions he had just killed...

Standing an incredible six meter's tall they were an intimidating sight to see.

"_I think I'm in trouble."_ Peter thought to himself.

"**No shit? Really wise guy? Wow. Way to go in stating the obvious. Idiot."**

That moment of distracting was enough for the two adult Giant Pigs to make their move. Faster then you would believe for a creature their size they were up close and personal. It was there that Peter realized several things.

One: his spider sense had done nothing.

Two: Those things had very wicked looking claws.

Three: Was that poison dripping from their teeth?

BANG

BANG

BANG

Bodies fell to the ground.

End

HA! How's that for a cliffie eh?

Comments and critics are always welcome. So yhea, We now know all four characters.

Harry Potter as a Mage. He will have generally no limits except that I will use magic only from Dungeons and Dragons, Final fantasy and TES Oblivion (and later possibly Skyrim.)

Weakness: brittle bone disease. In other words: think Joker from mass effect that he'll break bones easily.

Dudley will be a close combat character. I'm making him a mutant. I **originally** which means it's NOT now meant to give him a weakened version of the PROTOTYPE game. But that would basically have made him a God. So that was a no go. Let's say that I took a number of weaker mutants and gave him a weaker version of them to Dudley. Don't worry though he'll have a weakness just like Harry does.

Weakness: Magic does weird things with him. It either backfires doesn't work at all or works but not when it was meant to work.

Naruto... I haven't really got any long term stuff with him in mind. But he will have a big weakness. Magic doesn't work on him period. This means that all offensive magic will hurt him just as much as anyone but potions, healing magic and anything else will NOT WORK. Where Dudley will just have weird effects.

Finally...

Peter Parker aka spider man. Every 'hero' needs someone behind the scenes. Batman has Alfred for example. Someone that can give information, hack into computers or look for addresses... That sort of thing. So Peter will be behind the scenes. How and why you'll just have to find out!

Until next time!


	7. Loki The Illusive Man The Shadowbroker?

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_The world in which Harry, Dudley, Naruto and Peter now live is called '__**Maboroshi**_. Think of it as a copy of Earth with a number of differences that will be mentioned later.

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 07**

**Goal of 1,500 words:**** Completed.**

**Goal of 2,500 words:**** Completed. (if only barely)**

**Goal of 3,500 words:** Nope

**Final Goal of 5,000 words:** Nope

Total word count: 2.715 more or less

**Chapter start**

_Last time..._

_One: his spider sense had done nothing._

_Two: Those things had very wicked looking claws._

_Three: Was that poison dripping from their teeth?_

_BANG_

_BANG_

_BANG_

_Bodies fell to the ground..._

Peter was still watching, stunned as the three pigs were slaughtered one after the other. His exhaustion caught up with him shortly after and he fainted.

His symbiont who had been watching was just as tired and knocked out as her Host. The unidentified saviour observed Peter for a few moments before shaking his head.

"_It's not time yet for you to see my face little spider."_ The unidentified man thought. _"Though you arrived way quicker then you should have. The question is now... What do I do with you? You weren't supposed to arrive for months!"_

The unknown man stared at Peter for what seemed to be hours, apparently trying do deciding on what to do. Then just as suddenly the man made his decision. He took what stuff he could save from the former spacecraft -now a burned out husk- and then promptly disappeared from that location to the furthest point of the tower possible on the island. With Peter of course.

The man could have gone their on foot if he wanted too. Plants would have gone out of their way to make room for him, but he didn't want to damage Peter any more then he already was. Instead of hours, the man arrived at the furthest point of the tower mere seconds after he left. When Harry & Dudley would investigate the only thing they would find was a burned husk overgrown with plants and three rotting corpses.

They would leave quickly after not seeing the point in investigating a husk they didn't recognize as a spacecraft anyway.

Much Later...

"Argh.. Did anyone catch that truck?" Peter muttered. Peter tried to open his eyes but closed them immediately after. That was a mistake. Opening his eyes. Everything was way to bright. To make things worse his head was killing him. Like he had gone with a wrestling match with The Hulk or Logan aka the wolverine.

"_Aaah! My head is killing me._" Peter thought to himself. _"What did I do to feel this way?"_ Peter asked himself.

**'Oh? Your head is hurting eh? No kidding! That's what happens when you jump out of a crashing spacecraft and barely making use of your web-parachute to slow yourself down. Crashing into an dozens of trees is sure to make itself known. Even to you. Idiot.'**

Peter blinked several times. _"Did I hear a voice just now?"_ He asked himself.

**'No Peter.'** The voice drawled sarcastically. **'I'm your guardian angel here to kick your ass because I was forced to drag your butt back to the living. AGAIN. It isn't you time yet to die yet you keep forcing me to-"**

"Okay little symbiont, enough with the teasing!" A Second voice interrupted. For a moment Peter thought the voice had come from within but after a moment he concluded that this wasn't so.

Peter's eyes snapped open a second time and regretted it immediately after. How could he have forgotten his reaction the first time? His memories had returned though and he had made the connection as to who the first voice had been.

A part of Peter knew that hearing voices wasn't a good thing period. After the things he had gone through it was a miracle he hadn't gone nuts completely.

"_The first voice had to have been that symbiote that I couldn't leave behind. Really, why the hell am I such a boy scout sometimes?"_ Peter whined to himself.

**'So you admit you are a boy scout then?'** The symbiote asked him. **'That's a change to my predecessor!'**

Peter's patience was at an end though.

"_You will keep out of my private thoughts. We WILL talk later and don't think for a minute that you will take over without a fight!"_ Peter thought with as much anger as he could manage.

That did make Peter wonder though. How did that second voice know that IT was talking in the first place, let alone what it had been saying?

**'I'm not an IT dammit.'** The symbiont snapped. **'Call me Root. And I'm a GIRL. Remember that. Idiot.'**

Peter ignored the voice the best he could. He would deal with it later.

Peter cautiously tried to open his eyes again and to his relief it went much better this time. It took a few moments for everything to come into focus but then it was like nothing had ever changed.

"Who the hell are you?" Peter demanded. The man that had saved him apparently was dressed so any features were impossible to see. The hood covered his face and the robes covered any other clue's who this might be.

"Is that a way to thank the man that just saved you from being eaten alive piece by piece?"

Peter shuddered at the thought. "Please answer the question sir." Maybe being polite would do the trick?

Peter guessed that the man must have smiled because he nodded. "Very well then. Those that don't know who I am, refer to me as... 'The Gray Fox." the man explained. "That identity is usually connected to thieves and being stealthy. Another identity of mine is 'The Illusive Man' or just Tim for short. This alter ego usually runs an organization from behind the scenes... And finally there is the Shadow Broker. This guy sells and buys information... All of them are me and I am all of them. Pick your choice."

Peter growled. This man was mocking him and there was nothing he could do about it! The only thing he could do was ignore it and hope he could get some different answers!

"Fine then. Never mind about who you are. How did you know I was there? Did you see me crashing? Is the U.N going to pick us up any time soon? More importantly **why** and **how **did you kill those... Pig creatures without a tool that I could see?" Of course it wouldn't be too surprising if he did use a tool or a weapon but simply hadn't noticed it. He had been too busy passing out to pay attention to the details.

The man smirked. "Tut tut tut" He said with a taunting smile. "You have to pick a name first. That's how it goes."

Peter growled. His temper was nearly getting the better of him and he was sure that the man was unprepared for his special spider strength & speed.

"And don't think that your... Alter ego will be of any use here and now. I've granted you a favour, something you have wanted for years..." That was ignoring the fact that Peter had accepted his powers as a part of himself for the last few years and that he had only been whining about it on particular bad days. Not only that but the time that he had seriously been wanting to get rid of it was when he had just got his powers and the chaos that had followed shortly after.

The man continued uninterrupted. "You always did want a cure did you not?" The man taunted him.

"Because of who and what I am it is well within my power to take your powers away from you and leave your human abilities and the symbiont alone. Until you prove to me that you really want it of course. You are now completely human... Or at least as much human you can be with a symbiote bonded with you."

Peter's anger grew even larger. This... Man **dared** to taunt him? After all the pain, trouble, battles, dimension travelling SHIT he had gone through he now dared to take his power away from him?

All the sacrifices he had made... All the sacrifices his friends and allies had made... His uncle Ben dying because of his own actions would all be for NOTHING if he let this be.

Peter's control over his anger snapped like a twig.

"**Don't."** Peter growled. "**Don't you DARE taunt me like that."** Peter was unconsciously tapping into the symbiont's ability to modify his voice to appear more frightening.

The man rolled his eyes completely unimpressed. "Why don't you just get it over with? Give me a name and we can get this over with."

"FINE!" Peter snarled. Peter gave the matter some serious thought and came up with the answer. Loki. A Norse god that always caused trouble and that was supposedly a shape shifter.

'Loki it was then.'

"Loki." Peter snarled. "Are you happy now? Now answer the damned questions before I lose my temper!"

Loki looked at Peter and snorted. "You are just a human now Peter dear. A strong human I'll give you that but at this point you wouldn't even be a match against an experienced martial artist!"

"Have no fear, I shall enlighten you with all the answers you shall ever want. Or at least some of them. You wanted to know **why** I killed those pigs? Because they would have eaten you alive piece by piece while using their naturally given powers to keep you alive as long as possible. Besides, do you need a reason to crush ants? Neither do I and that's what those pigs are to me. You wanted to know **how** I killed those pigs? I killed them with what you know as a mutant power but I know it as magic. It is very helpful and can do a shipload of stuff." Loki explained calmly.

"As to who I am? Some call me a God though I'm not. But for all I know I might be one and not even know it. As far as I know though I'm just a really, really powerful magic user. Easily Omega class. Now, allow me to enlighten you to a number of important facts. Facts you should pay very much attention to if you wish to live." Loki said seriously.

"You can consider me your enemy after I leave here. Until you prove to me you are willing to do what it takes. Until then, you shall have to earn the right to regain your spider sense, your superhuman speed and strength and of course your ability to stick to walls. Your symbiont won't be able to help you because it can only enhance what is already there. And right now you are only a regular human."

Loki paused for a moment to let that sink in.

"While I'm your enemy, I won't stay that way. Once you earned the right to get your powers back, you shall be back in my good graces. You have grown arrogant with your powers and you need to get some of your humanity back. You can't really class me as a villain because I'm not a villain. But I'm not a hero either. I suppose you could call me both if the circumstances required me to be either a hero or a villain. So I supposed If you have to call me something then I'm grey." Loki explained calmly.

"What the hell does that even mean?" Peter demanded. "That doesn't make any sense."

Loki sighed. _"I suppose I can't blame him. He crashed here and wasn't able to do a number of scans. So he's completely ignorant. That's a blessing and a curse at the same time though. Question is... How much do I tell him without overwhelming him?"_

"You aren't in 'your' world Peter." Loki said simply.

'W-what?' Peter responded. "That has to be a lie!' Peter accused. "I used the same portal to come here as I used to travel to that alternate earth!"

"That might be true, but to be bluntly honest it was only because of luck that you went to that alternate version of Earth. Don't be mistaken though. This **is** a copy of earth. It is mostly the same. Cultures and countries speak the same language... Except for a small number of things. Magic exists and common around here. The use of technology is minimal below the mist and even above the mist they are still very primitive. Below the mist, technology has a high risk to explode in your face. Which is why the few civilizations above the mist have technology superiority. But that is not important at the moment." Loki dismissed.

"I will help you or fight you at a whim. The only time I will become your true ally is when you unlock your spider man powers again and when you realize the price that you have to pay to get it back."

A pause.

"Which brings me to why I saved you. I saved you because of one reason and one reason only. **Who** you are. The more ignorant people of this world call me a god. They worship me for my favour and occasionally I grant them a couple of favours. I keep an eye on them trough my... Servants so to speak but generally ignore them for the most part." Loki continued.

"I suppose that I could be a God but I wouldn't even know it. I have enough power to shake this world apart, to twist this world's rules until they obey my own. I could get rid of the Mist and allow the other nations an equal try at technology... I could do all of that and there is nobody that could stop me." Loki continued.

"Me being a God or not is irrelevant. I just consider myself a very powerful and a very knowledgeable magic user. To put it in terms you can understand, I could probably crush an omega class mutant like a fly."

Peter's mind was reeling with the revelations. The sort of power this guy was talking about was enormous!

"The fact is dear Peter... You weren't supposed to arrive for weeks! Months even!" Loki exclaimed.

"The future is like a leaf in a thunderstorm. It can be blown into every direction at any time and there is nothing that the leaf can do to stop it. The other leaves that flow around in the wind, represent other worlds. Different results of major consequences. It doesn't matter if the typical John Doe takes a crap on Tuesday instead of Monday because that doesn't influence anything. The other leaves represent results of important events. You, dear Peter are such an event. And so are two other human children on this same island!"

Peter was beginning to get overwhelmed with what he was being told.

Loki realized this too so he got to the point.

"I put you on the furthest side of the island, and covered you from the intelligent tower in the middle of the island until you reach it. If you get there alive then you should be ten times the man you are now. I gathered all the supplies from the crashed spacecraft and put them in this bag. I suggest you are careful with it, because once it has run out..."

Peter's eyes widened when he realized he was about to vanish. "W-wait!" But it was too late. Loki was already gone.

"Dammit!" Peter cursed.

Peter opened the bag and examined its contents. _"How the hell can this bag fit all of this crap?"_ Peter thought to himself.

The bag had provisions for what appeared to be months. Peter could still barely belief what he had heard and seen. Magic went against everything he knew about the world! And yet...

Peter sighed and decided he had no other option but to prepare a camp and see how he could get to the tower.

Wait. If he was on the edge of an island why couldn't he hear the sea? Peter walked to what appeared to be an edge and looked over it.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


	8. Tying up loose ends 1

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_The world in which Harry, Dudley, Naruto and Peter now live is called '__**Maboroshi**_. Think of it as a copy of Earth with a number of differences that will be mentioned later.

I've been playing The Elder Scrolls Skyrim a lot these last few days and I'm loving the magic and the way things are done. This means that the story will be influencing the story a bit more than the other games.

I have reviewed and edited all the chapters prior to this one. The changes are minimal except for the first chapter. I had to keep the changes to a minimum If I didn't want to rewrite the whole thing altogether and obviously that is unacceptable.

The below are scenes meant to tie up a few loose ends. They are not independent one shots. They may be referred to in the story later. They are meant for character development and to make the story that bit better.

Now that I got that over with... Enjoy!

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 08**

Tying up loose ends

Reactions in Konoha

**Takes place after Naruto vanishes.**

It had been yet another piece of evidence that Naruto wasn't your usual guy. He prevented the first and only Suna invasion from destroying them, he risked his shinobi career by attempting to retrieve the traitor Uchiha Sasuke even though he didn't deserve it any longer. Prior to that he risked his life to protect Tsunade, the fifth Hokage from being assassinated by Kabuto spy and traitor.

When all that drama was over with, Naruto was always in some kind of plot that gained Konoha a lot. The alliance with wave. The friendship with snow country now calling themselves spring country instead. He prevented an all out war between Suna and Konoha because of a misunderstanding.

Naruto actually brought people **back from the death** after the second invasion by the leader of Akatsuki itself.

Suffice to say that after all of that, Naruto was well known as the most unpredictable shinobi that Konoha had ever produced and most likely would produce period.

In all of this he never got his official promotion. He always remained stuck at his Genin rank. If you would ask someone that didn't know him personally, they would tell you that despite his actions he would remain a Genin for life. Those that knew him though...

What's more surprising then become Hokage when you were a Genin previously?

So of course it surprised people when his power went out of control. It got to people even more when he ordered the infamous training ground number forty four also known as the forest of death to be burned down and its animal population slaughtered.

The reasons didn't matter much for the rumour mill just that he had ordered it.

Unfortunately, the backslash of Naruto vanishing without a trace gave those few factions still bitter about Naruto's prisoner plenty of time to heat things back up so to speak. Old allies died during missions on accidents and political pressure was thrown around at their allies.

All of this because of the disappearance of one boy. The boy that had sworn to himself he would unite the shinobi world under one banner in one way or another. He had sworn that the pain caused by their very way of life would have to stop.

Ironically or not, his disappearance would be noted down as the cause for this to happen. It was also widely accepted that the leaf became a joke after Naruto's disappearance. Never before in her history had Konoha seen so many missing-nin. And it all happened because those in power after Naruto vanished couldn't get over their grudge and pain that a force of nature had caused.

Because that was what Kyuubi had been in essence. A force of nature. You didn't get bitter at a thunderstorm for flooding your home. It just happens and there is nothing you can do about it save rebuilding your home and trying again. The only you can do is get through the storm the best you can.

Konoha isn't much mentioned in history books except to mention that this is the place where Uzumaki Naruto had come from. All of its other exploits would be forgotten in history. Or at least, this would happen if Naruto weren't the most surprising ninja ever.

But that story is for later to tell. And trust me, it **will** be told one way or another.

XXX

Tying up loose ends

**Consequences in the magical community.**

Mankind has a very colourful history to say the least. War, diseases, mythical creatures creating chaos and whole societies being swallowed up... Or going into hiding. One has to wonder when and where the first mutant showed up. The same goes for the magical community that Harry Potter belongs too.

Is magic a mutation of and by itself, or is it an even greater evolution than a plain mutation? In several hundred years, will everybody be able to manipulate the world as they please, breaking the laws of science at a whim or will they have been swallowed up through time and inbreeding?

The disappearance of Harry & Dudley did not go unnoticed. The headmaster of the Xavier institute had been monitoring for excessive mutant activity after all. Travelling not to a different location on earth, but to a whole different world altogether is not something a delicate machine such as Cerebro would miss.

A subtle investigation launched and backed by one of the strongest telepaths on earth made sure they stumbled on a society hidden for centuries. At the time, Albus Dumbledore had still a mostly perfect reputation. This wouldn't be for much longer but the damage he did was serious enough that any serious chance for an alliance was destroyed before it could even be suggested let alone discussed.

What is that saying again? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Dumbledore was such a man that fit the saying to a T. Believing in redemption and against killing with no in between. Not without being pressed with his nose in his mistakes. Not without being forced to see that sometimes, a threat has to be ended permanently or at least neutralized sufficiently that the threat couldn't be a threat any more period.

Charles Xavier never thought he could meet himself but **wrong**. Albus Dumbledore was a man with principles similar to his own. No violence. Talk first. Giving second chances where they are due. Charles knew though that giving second chances would have to stop there. If a second chance was wasted there would be no more coming from him. Or at least not without some very good circumstances.

Charles could see himself in Dumbledore, a man that thought only he knew best. A man that thought only he could lead from behind the scenes. Charles was horrified by what he saw in the man. If that wasn't enough on its own, discovering his plans for young Harry destroyed any and all chances for friendship and alliances as far as Charles was concerned.

Charles didn't normally tap into people's thoughts and memories. But Occlumency was unfortunately or fortunately the way you looked at it, a way of SHOUTING your thoughts and memories at a telepath. And unfortunate enough for Charles. He was a very strong and very talented telepath.

It took Charles a great amount of self restraint to not mind fuck Dumbledore back to toddler hood. The only reason that he didn't was the fact that he knew the lad was still alive. And his gut feeling was telling him alive and happy. The same went for his cousin.

The only thing that Charles couldn't make himself undo was making Dumbledore rethink his actions several times when not fighting. It would hopefully make him reconsider less acceptable things. Charles couldn't actually do anything about Voldemort because he had no clue where he? It was. Charles didn't know an innocent man was suffering in what many would consider a place of torture. Albus truly believed Sirius guilty. He never knew that he had never received a trial. Things were chaotic when Voldemort was still alive and kicking.

Dumbledore on the other hand would feel his conscious nagging at him more than it did the last few years. He found himself reconsidering plans he had thought up. Plans that were for the greater good or so he thought. Who was he to decide the greater good for the magical community?

Yes. Dumbledore found himself very busy trying to figure himself out. It was like being a teenager all over again, without the teenage angst and the hormones.

Because of Dumbledore loss in political power, Fudge never got the minister seat. And because of that it would change the whole story of the future.

How is it possible that one disappearing act of one little boy could cause so much chaos?

XXX

Tying up loose ends

Tying up loose ends

**Learning magic...**

Harry stared at what he thought Ruby would look like. It was a neat trick that she could do. She could make Harry think he saw something while in reality there was nothing there. Interesting for mischief should they ever have a visitor. Of course such desire for mischief was kept in check because it only worked if they had enough in talent to see magic to a point.

"You want me to do **what?"** Harry asked again. "I don't think I heard you correctly. You want me to create fire... Out of nothing?"

The ghost of Ruby rolled her eyes. An odd gesture for something that wasn't actually alive. But since she had been observing for centuries she had picked up a thing or two. Even though she hadn't received a gender or a name before Harry had given her one.

"Like I told you before." Ruby repeated patiently. "This won't work if you have doubts of your own. Magic requires many things to work. But belief is one such requirement. What's the point of trying to do something if you don't believe it will work?" Ruby repeated. Again.

"I cannot modify your memory to conveniently forget about your doubts that magic can exist because that would be changing who you are. I cannot allow you to absorb a book of knowledge this soon either." Ruby continued.

"You will just have to do it the old fashion way."

'Fine.' Harry muttered. 'But I'm doing this under protest.'

"_I still don't believe it is possible to create fire from... Nothing at all."_ The boy thought privately.

"You can do it naked for all I care as long as you do it." Ruby retorted pleasantly.

A blush made its way on Harry's face. He hadn't meant for Ruby to overhear that. Despite not being human, she was more a mother figure or a grandmother figure or even an overprotective sister than his aunt had ever been.

"Remember Harry, you have to connect with your magic first. Once you do that, allow it flow through yourself. Feel its energy. Feel its power. Feel the **rush** that it gives you when you allow it free reign and make sure to stop it when it does that. Recognize it as the ally and enemy it can be." Ruby lectured.

"Allowing magic free reign is a rush akin to an addiction. If you are not careful with it, you will get stuck with it and it will rule over you. Your power is your ally and not your slave. It is a very important difference that not many magic users know about let alone actually accept. When magic users get addicted to this feel... This rush. They will want to have more of it. Because eventually that first rush will get boring. And a bored Mage is a dangerous Mage." Ruby continued.

"This is the first step many magic users take on the road to insanity. And as you may or may not know, insanity and genius are a double edged blade. And I don't want you to experience insanity until you are least a couple of centuries old."

Harry's concentration was broken when he realized what Ruby had said.

"Wait." The boy said with a touch of... something in his voice.

"You actually want me to experience insanity at one point or another? Why?" The boy demanded.

Ruby looked as uncomfortable as he had ever seen her. "It can be argued that no magic user is completely sane Harry." She evaded.

"You experienced its rush already. Do you think you could do without? Do you think you could stand the thought of never experiencing it again?"

Harry allowed himself to consider the thought for a moment and it gave him the shivers. "What's got experiencing insanity got to do with it though?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment. "Are you sure you want to know this?" She asked Harry. "It's not exactly a secret when Mages are taught but I'm not sure what your reaction would be."

"I want to know what you are talking about Ruby." Harry said firmly.

"Very well then." Ruby muttered. "Give me a moment to think about it though." Seeing his look she glared at him.

"I'll answer your questions don't you worry about that I just want to make sure I'll do it right rather then just getting it over with. And don't you dare glare at me like that. I have done nothing to deserve it!"

Harry experienced a feeling he had never felt before. Did he feel hurt? Embarrassed? What was this feeling he felt in his chest? After giving it some serious thought, Ruby finally thought of the best way to put it.

"I suppose that going 'nuts' is a test. Similar to a drunk. You have happy drunks, angry drunks and drunks that have no understanding of shutting up. The same is true for this. It is a test to see what sort of nut you are."

Harry could only shake his head at the oddness of that explanation.

Tying up loose ends

**Harry Potter continued.**

Several weeks later

**Ranks**

"What do you mean I'm so below even a five year old apprentice in this world that it isn't even funny?" Harry demanded hotly.

Like was getting typical, Harry was getting into an argument with Ruby. Dudley just shook his head and kept practising his weapon movements. Or he kept cleaning his weapons. Either that or he studied the politics and history of the world. Because he knew that Harry wasn't suited for it.

"There are typically six ranks in just about everything." Ruby lectured.

"Novice, apprentice, journeyman, expert, master and Grandmaster. Going from the most inexperienced babe to the most experienced master." Ruby continued.

"You aren't even a novice at this point. You aren't even the rank below novice at this point." Ruby said bluntly.

"You can't just magically become a master at magic. You have to study it. Practice it. You live and breath magic as a magic user. It is an art. A way of life. Until you understand this you will always be a zero went it comes to this." Ruby continued. She didn't like hurting Harry like this. But he needed a dose of reality. She didn't like where he was going. He wasn't ready for the test of insanity by a long shot.

"There are roughly five main magic schools with countless of variations that use bits an pieces of each school. And so far you have shown some talent in them but you aren't applying yourself. You have been struggling to use a spell that a five year old would master in a month!" Ruby said simply.

"You... I.." Harry stuttered.

"I need a break. Don't bother me." Harry snapped. He left the room and made for the roof. He needed air. Fresh air.

"_What am I doing wrong?"_ Harry asked himself. _"I have been trying my best for these last few days haven't I?" I've been trying to do the simplest of the spells and none of them work. Not even when I use every crutch in the book!"_

Ruby had been watching Harry from a distance. Careful to keep her probing to a minimum. She was following his thoughts and realized that maybe there was something else going on here. _"Could that parasite have done more damage then I thought?"_ Ruby asked herself.

Harry did the exercise he had been able to do from the start and allowed his magic to run through his body. He directed it to his hand and created a small ball of energy. Nothing difficult he was sure. Not like creating fire out of nothing at all.

Harry then changed the ball into a little puppy of energy and gave it a spark of life. No true consciousness but just a touch of life to make it seem real.

Harry watched the antics of the puppy and allowed himself to smile. If only he could do those damn exercises that Ruby gave him. A spark of fire couldn't be difficult could it?

Harry did not notice that the puppy, technically a slave to his will shifted into a puppy of flames. It was still innocent but it had sensed the desire of its master and had done what it could to help.

Ruby had watched the spectacle from start to finish and couldn't believe what she saw. Harry was able to do a more difficult exercise but not the simpler version? Maybe she shouldn't have given it so many limits. It was obvious that Harry liked to play and experiment with his magic. Maybe she should remember that for the future...

Tying up loose ends

**Naruto & Drap during the winter months**

**NARUTO **

**IS **

**NOT**

**GAY.**

**AND HE WILL NOT BE IN A MALE MALE RELATIONSHIP.**

**Despite what these scenes imply.**

Drap was amazed how quickly Naruto was recovering despite his extreme injuries. He would've thought he would have needed many months to recover. Especially in a cave with little of no privacy or hygienic. Especially in those first few months there was virtually no option for privacy.

Not that Drap was a shy man. He had been raised as a man of nature. It wasn't uncommon to see a couple making love. Shared baths of common genders wasn't unusual either. Though single men and woman preferred to bathe when the baths were less used.

The fact that Naruto could barely move meant that he had to clean Naruto up regularly. A bedpan was the least of their troubles. Naruto's Kage Bunshin were a gift from heaven. They were immune to cold and were perfect to hunt for food and get fresh water. They could use the other cave that wasn't right for humans to dry wood and to keep food away from predators.

Naruto was very much a straight man. He had always chased after Sakura and when Hinata had confessed her love he had chased her. That never became anything because Hinata was killed in an attempt to get to him. They succeeded but not in the way they had hoped. Naruto had become more stubborn than he had ever been in the past and he took his training to insane levels.

Until he snapped at a certain point and woke up naked nestled between guys and girls after an unexpected night of drinking. It didn't mean he wasn't straight any more but simply that he had lost his shyness around men.

It was because of this that he tolerated Drap as he cleaned himself up after especially uncomfortable dreams.

Drap and Naruto became close during those winter months. Not lover close mind you but still close like brothers. Naruto had never found a person he could share his trouble with that was like Drap.


	9. Tying up loose ends 2

Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons

_The world in which Harry, Dudley, Naruto and Peter now live is called '__**Maboroshi**_. Think of it as a copy of Earth with a number of differences that will be mentioned later.

I've been playing The Elder Scrolls Skyrim a lot these last few days and I'm loving the magic and the way things are done. This means that the story will be influencing the story a bit more than the other games.

I have reviewed and edited all the chapters prior to this one. The changes are minimal except for the first chapter. I had to keep the changes to a minimum If I didn't want to rewrite the whole thing altogether and obviously that is unacceptable.

The below are scenes meant to tie up a few loose ends. They are not independent one shots. They may be referred to in the story later. They are meant for character development and to make the story that bit better.

Now that I got that over with... Enjoy!

**Harry Potter: Dungeons & Dragons**

**Chapter 08**

Tying up loose ends

_This happens shortly before Peter leaves from the Alternate Earth_

Peter had seen many things. He had experienced many things. He had **done** many things. But having to chose between a world that's not your own and most likely already lost to those insane symbiotes or choosing to go back to your own world and warn them for what might come.

Choose between a world where humans were already second class citizens and a world that while not perfect was trying to get better.

Peter had that choice now. He could take off in the space craft that had been modified who knows how much and take his chances or stay here and risk being infected and giving those symbiotes an experienced super soldier.

Peter remembered when he had 'gained' the symbiote for the first time. He had felt awesome. Like nothing could even touch him. But for every power you pay a price. And the power for the symbiote was to lose yourself in your anger. To lose yourself in your hate and aggression. It would drown you in your most basic instincts until there was nothing left of the Host.

Of course peter had to admire the race somewhat. They could adapt to virtually any situation. They were able to enhance their host make them stronger, make the need for clothing be pointless because the symbiote could provide it.

But the symbiote couldn't give what wasn't there. If the host couldn't fly then the symbiote couldn't magically make that happen. But if the symbiote had experienced a host in the past, then it _**might**_ be able to do something.

Nothing was ever guaranteed. No human was meant to fly on his own without any tools. So he or she wouldn't be able to adapt to such an environment either.

Peter had made his decision. He couldn't abandon his own world. This one would have to survive on its own. He was thought to be a traitor by the rebellion anyway. And the beast government couldn't be reasoned with. He knew because he had tried more than once.

For a short time he had thought he had gotten through to the big guy. But he hadn't. He had seemed agreeable enough but then he changed his mind all of the sudden. Peter knew there might be something he could've done then and there but he hadn't seen anything wrong and had been forced to escape.

The only good thing was that he had been studying in what free time he had in how to control a shuttle craft. He had even written his own software to do it. Had spent hours and hours debugging it and putting pressure on it the best he could.

Peter was proud of his smarts but he knew he wasn't the smartest guy out there. There were many more that outclassed him in that department without even trying.

Peter shook his head, activated his suit and left for the place where the ship was stored. He would need to move quickly. Steel his heart and knock those beasts out for a long while. He might as well let lose and get rid of his built up frustration.

Peter did what he intended to do. He moved like a shadow, knocking them out, disabling or looping security without being seen. The training those ex marine guys had given him came in handy now.

It took him a while to re-write the software but once he did he could see many of the improvements that the big guy had ordered. It was more like a flying tank save the weapons than anything else.

Opening the launching pad, Peter initiated the launch sequence ignoring his conscious that was nagging him. Ignoring the tears and his broken heart because he had to leave the girl he had fallen in love with and her son he had began to consider his. Peter knew they couldn't come with him because it would cause more trouble than it was worth.

"Please forgive me for what I'm about to do." He muttered. He hit the touch screen to launch the shuttle and to initiate the explosives in five minutes after he left.

He would leave with a bang that was for sure!

The shuttle craft was launched into the air, the anti air turrets giving him cover instead of trying to shoot him down thanks to his virus he had uploaded in the main computer. It would spread like the plague hitting friend and foe alike.

"Oh God!" Peter cried. His mask long soaked from the tears that were streaming down his face. "Please forgive me for what I did."

The shuttle craft broke from earth and shot into space straight into the wormhole that had once brought him here. Peter didn't know that a symbiote had managed to sneak aboard. This one not being evil as its parents.

The symbionte

The symbiote didn't have much of a thinking process. It was too... Primitive and instinctive for that. It had inherited all the knowledge from its ancient parent and had inherited all the value's from Peter Parker aka spiderman.

It remembered very clearly that it couldn't try to bond with Peter without warning. But it was unable to communicate with him either. So it waited. Observing and learning what was going on. Hoping that it wouldn't perish before it was given a chance to explain. It was because it was so instinctive that its true intelligence couldn't be used without a host. Without a host it was just a smart animal.

But with a host, a **human** host it would be able to share its inherited knowledge. The human was the first and only race that it knew that could truly sustain its race.

This new symbiote knew that it was one of the last of its kind. Its own race had been so aggressive that they had turned on each other. Many fled and many more perished trying. Even more were 'eaten' and absorbed by the stronger symbiote.

And that was its history in a nutshell. It was more complicated then that of course. But having said this had touched on the more important details.

**End**

I ended it here because this is the last 'tying up loose ends' for now. It's WAY below my supposed minimum word count, but in return I'm going to publish a ninth chapter shortly after this one. The ninth chapter will NOT be a 'tying up loose ends' though.

**Wait and see.**


	10. The confrontation comes closer

HP H&D 10

**To celebrate the tenth chapter of this story, it'll be extra long!**

The chapter hasn't been published as quickly as I had hoped. I had to rewrite the whole thing before I was happy with it.

I did salvage a number of scenes of the original thing though.

Enjoy

Peter Parker aka the (amazing) spider man was stunned out of his wits by what his eyes were telling him. He blinked several times, pinched himself and tried to recall if he had drunk any alcohol or some form of drugs had infiltrated his system... The answer was no of course. He hadn't drunk a drop of alcohol in months and he had **never** touched drugs since he got his super human powers.

'Fact: the island is floating without any form of technology I can see. (Fact two point 1, it is still possible that some form of technology is used.)'

'Fact two: If there was no technology used to keep the island in the air then that only left magic.'

And his experiences with magic were **NOT** good.'

Peter had been in contact with 'greater powers' various times. Madam web being the biggest and best example and the 'supreme sorcerer' coming in close second. Peter knew that he himself had no talent in magic whatsoever. He could possibly activate magical machines that just required a touch of magic to use. And since everything that has a heart beat has at least a touch of magic, that included him.

By the time Peter had calmed down, he realized he needed answers. And the only way to **get** his answers was to get to the Tower. And to get to the Tower he would most likely need allies. This required some serious thinking.

"_At least I have my bag of wonders to depend on to help me survive."_ Peter reflected. The symbiote (root) would be a weapon on and by itself. Since it could enhance his natural human strength. It could form weapons through its webbing though these were more replicas and not as strong as the real thing.

But these were only pesky details.

Two months of hell later

Peter cursed Loki's name for the... well he had lost count when he got over a hundred. And that was within the first day, and within the first hour. Peter thought back to the very beginning when he had still had the slightest of hopes that it wouldn't be all that bad.

Suffice to say that his hopes were burned, destroyed, lost its head and well... You get the picture.

X

The moment that Peter had entered the jungle - (Because it couldn't be a forest. It was too dense for that.) - He had been attacked. Peter wasn't caught of guard or anything but it still spooked him. The creature was unreasonable and came at him with the clear and undisguised intent to kill. Peter had something against killing. But killing wild animals that were clearly after him? No problem.

So Peter had reacted accordingly. There was one little snag though. Peter hadn't been able to look at his attacker properly. It moving too quickly for him to examine properly. And once he did get a good look at his would be attacker he nearly got sick. Thankfully he didn't. But only because he had been able to convince himself. Barely.

The creature looked vaguely like a human. It _seemed_ intelligent but that was saying nothing. Apes could look and act intelligent too but they still weren't considered as smart as humans.

At the time he had been able to convince himself of that similarity and that it wasn't intelligent.

Two months later and he **knew** that while they weren't as smart as humans nor could they talk they weren't stupid either. They had a whole language of their own and they had **grudges.** Animals as far as he knew do not have grudges.

So he burned the body and continued when he was attacked again. And again. And again.

Peter tried to not use lethal force those times but was forced too anyway because they kept trying to kill him no matter what their injuries were. Breaking their legs would result in their companions killing them. Though looking back on it, killing would be a mercy compared to broken legs.

The rest of those two months had been no less frustrating and draining on his morals. By the end of it he had killed so many creatures of all forms and sizes that Peter was beginning _**not**_ to care if he killed anything here.

Peter thanked his lucky stars that he had Root as company. At least she was able to help him in so many situations. She was able to form a suit around himself. Allowed him to create emergency shields or other weapons to defend himself if they broke through his defences. Root's instinctive knowledge how to kill helped too. Peter didn't realize he was tapping into that knowledge until he asked himself the question where he knew how to kill so efficiently.

Speaking off...

Peter's bond with Root was complicated as hell. On one hand she was a virtual new born. But thanks to the genetic knowledge she inherited from her race she had a HUUUUUUGE amount of knowledge to tap into. And part of that knowledge was how to kill efficiently.

XXX

(Two months later.)

Ever since he had mysteriously had become the leader of a small pack of 'Gnomes' as they called themselves they had virtually forced him to become their leader. Peter could have walked away, but they were such a pathetic sight without any leadership that he couldn't convince himself to just leave. Peter had killed their leadership after all. The why or how didn't matter any more.

And now he watched with great satisfaction as the village of an enemy gnome burned down to ashes. His gnomes were making sure the fire did not go out of control and threw any and all enemies into the fire. Alive or dead.

Peter turned away knowing that his gnomes would take care of the rest. This was the last settlement that had needed to burn to give him enough forces to finally get to the Tower. The gnomes and the elves had lived in a forced peace. Neither could attack because it could weaken themselves and would invite the other to attack on different locations. That was made even more complicated by the fact that the gnomes were not united. The same was true for the elves.

Now that he commanded hundreds of gnomes warriors, all sworn to him it would allow him to invade the territory of the elves. _"I hope my efforts will be enough to bribe the masters of the Tower."_ Peter mused.

It had been a thought of pure genius. Give the masters of the Tower an army to command. It would surely put him in their good graces and that of the Tower. He only needed to subdue the elves and that would allow him to attack any of the other races.

Because that was something he had finally learned. This island had been floating around -in the air- for centuries of not millennia. Not only that, but the **old** master had gathered all the species that were threatened with extinction and had offered them the island for safety. In return they would swear their loyalty to the Island, protect it with all their power and answer the summoning of the Master of the Tower should it happen.

Many races that lived here had forgotten about that agreement and had grown arrogant because they perceived their island as property of their race. Their oath of loyalty, had been lost through time. The only reason why it hadn't punished these races was because they hadn't attacked the Tower or had done anything to harm its citizens.

Then you would have to ask, why didn't it harm the Gnomes? Because they attacked the other races with the intent of offering its final army to the Masters of the Tower.

Peter did have another reason aside from offering its army to the Tower. The Hunters. They were a massive threat to the island and its races. They fed and hunted not for food but because they could. And since they were **aliens** they were not threatened by the magic of the oath of loyalty.

Two months later.

(A total of four months after Peter crashed on the island.)

Peter had a feeling of deja vu when he once again watched as the last stronghold of the elves burned. This time they had fought a lot harder. But they had submitted all the same. Now he had an army of several hundred soldiers under his command. The gnomes veterans by now and the elves being taught how to fight. Peter had been able to disguise himself and walk around the army camp to get an idea of their loyalty.

Suffice to say he had not realized how extremely loyal they were to him. He had united them. He had doubled their territory and had secured their breed-able females along with sufficient males. A reward for the strongest and best warriors.

Along with the problems he had solved, many new problems had replaced them instead. He needed a constant supply to feed the gnomes. While it was true they could hunt for food, it would drain the local wildlife far quicker then acceptable. The problem was that his actions had rallied the other races. They had made their own preparations and any attack would cost him more lives then he could spare.

Then there was the constant attacks of the Hunters. Those bastards had gotten away with at least a hundred of his army despite their alert state. He couldn't attack those bastards yet because a) he had no clue where they lived, b) he had no clue about their numbers and c) he had no clue how they fought. All important issues that needed a solution.

**'At least our gnomes can out breed those Pigs any day of the week.'** Ruby offered.

Peter shuddered when he realized she was right. Those things had proven the saying 'breeding like bunnies' and outdid them a thousand times. But that brought its own problems. He already needed to be careful with the supplies he had. If he allowed the Gnomes to breed freely then his supplies would go down even faster.

Peter summoned one of the smartest Gnomes -that happened to be 'their' chosen leader- and knew just about anything and everything that was happening through constant reports.

"How long before we can reach the Tower?" Peter asked Cron. Cron was the chosen leader of the Gnomes to represent their interest. He had helped him in the beginning and now he was the 'king' of them but Cron still answered to Peter.

"We could march through the territory of the Giant Acromantula but it would alert them immediately through their webbing. They are really experienced predators and could take out our entire army in one attack through sheer expendable numbers. So that's not an option." Cron evaded.

"At this point in time we cannot reach the Tower without being forced to conquer the territory of the Dwarves. Their cities and settlements are mostly underground. The problem is that even their smallest settlements are virtual fortresses on their own. The only solution is making an alliance with them. Because going above their territory is even more suicide then it is going through the territory of the giant spiders." Cron continued.

Peter debated on what to do. It was true that he could not just ignore the Dwarves cities because they could attack him from any direction at any time. They were extremely sensitive to ground waves and would know when an army entered their territory. They could make traps without exposing themselves and attack them constantly with virtual no threat of casualties. For the Dwarves.

"An alliance it is then." Peter decided.

Four months later...

(Eight months after Peter crashed on the island.)

Peter sighed in relief when the last enemy fell. The dwarves were cunning warriors in or outside the battlefield. But they were not without their own enemies. Both outside their borders and within. To gain their loyalty Peter had been forced to attack the territory of a Dwarven lord that was disliked. They couldn't do anything themselves because it would invite attack.

Peter had done in four months what the Dwarven race couldn't do in generations. Unite them in one way or another. At least it offered him a very good base of operations. And a constant source of supplies.

Now he was able to march towards the territory of the Tower.

Finally.

After eight months of stress, blood and tears. One thing that worried Peter though was the fact that the masters of the tower had completely ignored him. They couldn't possibly rely on its defences alone.

But enough about that.

Peter should have known better than that though. He had completely forgotten about Loki. Because he had appeared as soon as Cron had left.

XXX

**'You have become what I wanted you to become. An experienced warrior and at the same time able to command his soldiers. You had to get over 'killing' during it and that is what I wanted you to learn as well. Just like I promised, you shall have your enhanced speed and strength back as well as your spider sense. Go to the tower and present your army to the masters of the tower. They shall command you to bring the entire island back under control. Once you do that... You shall be rewarded with your full arsenal on top of my personal rewards... You shall of course have to teach the masters of the tower all you know as well."**

Then there was silence. Loki's voice went silent just as quickly as it came.

Peter just shrugged. He had gotten over killing all right. Maybe it was because of Root maybe it wasn't. She certainly was bloodthirsty enough for the both of them.

Ruby... The Tower

Ever since Ruby had woken up she had began repairing her minions she had under her command. Many of them had been destroyed through the lack of maintenance. The rest had succumbed to time. Eight months is a lot of time, but Ruby had **not** been operating under wartime regulations. She did not know that Peter had arrived let alone what he was doing.

If she had been aware then she would have had a lot more minions under her command. The attack of that isolated Gnome village had been unexpected. She did not have any warriors ready at the time and had been forced to expend raw energy. While she had a lot of energy saved during her thousands of years of sleep, it would take her centuries to recover what she had spend.

Ruby had just finished her first batch of warriors when her internal alarms went off. And they activated _**urgently**_. For a moment Ruby had considered that it was a bug but when she reviewed the information she realized that the island was under attack for eight months already and she never knew!

Ruby sensed her two charges calling for her, and she did answer them. But it was a secondary version of herself. She could split herself several times to deal with stuff at the same time. And this alert required her undivided attention.

If Ruby had been human she would have gotten a headache. She had only just finished her warriors and she was forced to deploy them immediately. Warriors that were meant for internal security until she could make better ones.

She reviewed the warriors she had finished building one more time. They had barely enough numbers to secure the tower itself. Let alone allow her to go on an offensive!

If she wanted to go on an offensive she would have to grow and build new ones. But that took time.

Time that she didn't have dammit!

Ruby felt very guilty that the minions she had been given by her old master were all gone now due to her inattention and laziness. She wasn't a human. Technically she wasn't even alive. The only reason that she had been... Sleeping was because of her own boredom. She was really glad that her old master had taken _sleep_ into account. If she had to be awake the whole time she didn't know what she would have done. Could she lose her 'mind' when she technically didn't have one?

She didn't know and wouldn't want to find out either.

Perhaps if her old master **hadn't** forbidden her to command the minions outside the island they would still be active? At the time all the minions had been recalled. Since her old master had never intended to die, the move that was supposed to be temporarily became permanent. And the island was allowed to go wild.

The only reason that she could do something now was because of the attack of those treacherous Gnomes. Their race had sworn their loyalty to her old master in return for protection of persecution. Their race was very handy when you needed raw numbers. Not to mention that having minions in general was cool too.

There was a loophole in her master's order that was never supposed to be exploited. It allowed her to take command, grow and basically do anything and everything that was needed to defend the Tower.

She had finished then dozen minions. A hundred and twenty warriors in total. Could she afford to send what little forces she had on a mission that even her elites when she had them would have been hard pressed to complete? Namely, finding and destroying the threat?

No.

"_Let them come here. The tower is a freaking fortress. They would need dozens of Mages to breach the most outward bubble. And that will give me time to make more warriors."_

Ruby assigned all one hundred and twenty warriors patrol duty. Plain and simple.

Now how to explain this to Master Harry and Dudley?

We switch to Peter now about a month after.

Peter could barely believe how big the freaking tower really was. It had been been big. He had known that. But to see it without any tree's in he way... Peter had ordered his army to make camp and for only a small escort to go with him. Hopefully this would be enough to make them talk with him at least.

_**BONUS CONTENT**_

_**BONUS CONTENT**_

_**The below is the ORIGINAL chapter. BEFORE I rewrote the whole thing. I thought that I might as well share it with you. Remember that it is the ABOVE content that is important.**_

_**I copied the chapter straight here. You will probably recognize a lot of stuff. But it is still different enough to my new version.**_

_**KD**_

HP H&D 10

**To celebrate the tenth chapter of this story, it'll be extra long!**

Not as quick as I had thought but here it is, just like I promised.

Peter Parker aka the (amazing) spider man was stunned out of his wits by what his eyes were telling him. By all accounts this shouldn't be possible. Everything he knew about science screamed at him at this impossibility. But for all he knew this might be a world so advanced that his knowledge of science was considered to be well... What he considered the alphabet to be. Or to count from one to ten.

Peter knew there were forces of greater power. Madam web had proven that. The science he had seen there had proven that too. Sufficiently advanced technology could be considered magic by the more primitive societies. Then again he knew that magic existed. Or at least a form of energy that defied the laws of the universe as he understood it.

"_If I want answers then I need to get to that tower. And if Loki is right then it won't be an easy trip either... Maybe I could make a fire to get their attention?"_ Peter thought to himself.

'No.' Peter decided. _"Who knows what sort of creatures there are on this island. Let's see what sort of resources I have in my bag of wonders._"

Two months of hell later

Peter cursed Loki's name for the... well he had lost count when he got over a thousand. And that was within the first week.

Peter had been forced to kill. If it had been 'just' animals he could've gotten over it. But these gnomes were extremely human like. He could barely understand them and if it weren't for his spider sense warning him he would food now. They knew him, they knew his camping spot and they knew he was forced to rely no their supplies to survive. He had never thought he would have to do something so hard ever again. It was like leaving that alternate earth wasn't punishment enough now he had to go through this.

At least he had Root as company. Her instincts had helped him to get over what he had to do. A lot. Her knowledge helped a lot too. Techniques to kill without letting the target feel a thing.

Peter and Root had a complicated relationship. On one hand he could never get rid of her. Doing so would kill them both. She had been forced to bind herself deeper to him than she had ever had to do before. She had experienced all of his memories in a few weeks while he...

Saying that Root was old when the earth was still a cold rock was an understatement. Or if you wanted to be technical her parent was as ancient. Peter didn't know what would happen to Venom and Carnage as they called themselves and if he had to be honest he just didn't care.

Bonding with Root had changed him in ways he didn't even know. He had grown colder. More efficient. But his sense of fairness was untouched. Root allowed him to sleep without dreams until he truly got over them. And even then she was able to make sure they were very pleasant dreams.

XXX

Peter watched without letting his emotions seen on his face as the village burned to ash. The corpses were thrown in the fire to make sure everything would be gone. The screams still echoing in his memories as wounded gnomes were buried or burned alive. Or both. 

Peter turned away and shot himself into the trees. That was the last settlement in this part on the island. It would hopefully prove a point. Peace between himself and the gnomes was virtually impossible now-

**That's not true Peter and you know it.** Root interrupted.

"_I'm not doing that Root. Not now not ever." _Peter retorted simply. _"I will not make virtual slaves of their people. It will make them resent me more than they would fear me and it would result in more and more death as a result."_

**And can you be so sure about that? If you take control of their people, force them to recognize you as their master then you could let them handle themselves and just nudge them every now and then.** Root said calmly.

"_And where would it end? Teaching them how to read? How to advance? What would I do should they go to war with each other? Will I need to choose on side over the other? Should this theoretical ever take place I would be practically be forced to conquer more of them in order to keep the peace. It's better to leave them alone now. Send them a message that I will not seek them deliberately if they do the same."_

**What of those hunters? They are a freak of nature. Not killing because of the need of food but because they can. I told you before that I recognized them from somewhere and now I know for sure. Those are aliens. And aggressive aliens at that.**

"_You are an alien too and your race might be just as aggressive! Don't forget that I have experienced a great amount of your memories by now. Your race isn't a saint by a long shot!"_ Peter argued back.

**Maybe, maybe not.** Root responded calmly. **But these aliens are worse. We need hosts to survive. My race did what was needed so it could survive. The same cannot be said of these disgusting pigs.**

Peter rolled his eyes. They had been having this argument for days. _"We aren't going to agree on this unless something serious happens. Let's just focus on getting to the tower._"

Two months later

**C'mon. SAY IT!** Root crowed.

"_Fine. You were right. I should have done this a long time ago." _Peter admitted. _"So what now? We have now proven ourselves the master of these gnomes and they are more terrified of __**us**__ then they are of those disgusting pigs. I tried talking to them and they just don't understand or they don't __**want**__ to understand. So you were right about THAT as well. These gnomes were bred for one thing and one thing only: to obey the commands of the one they consider Master."_

**At least now we don't have to worry about those annoying attacks from the gnomes.** Root pointed out.

"No." Peter agreed out loud. "Now we have to worry about the whole population of Hunters getting after our ass because we organized their preferred prey in a way they can't get too easily."

His point was proven at the stronghold -if it could be called that- the gnomes were building under his direction.

**At least our gnomes can out breed those Pigs any day of the week.**

Peter shuddered when he realized she was right. Those things had proven the saying 'breeding like bunnies' and outdid them a thousand times.

Then he remembered the females offering themselves and had to control his stomach. No. Not a pretty thought at all.

At least Peter had influenced Root too. She didn't care much for what gender she was mating with. But the thought of having to mate with female gnomes made her feel uneasy to say the least.

"_How long before we get to the tower?"_ Peter asked again.

**Probably a month or two I guess.** Root responded.

"_You guess?"_ Peter repeated. "_That's the best you can do?"_ He asked in disbelief.

That was the start of another endless argument.

Another two months later...

The end of hell

Peter had done it. He had pushed himself to limits he never knew he had. He had taken control of 'his' people and waged war. It still amazed him that the battles had been overlooked by that magical tower. The fact that one of the bigger rebel villages had been slaughtered after they had been brought to the tower confused him a little though.

The hunters had become the hunted and their large numbers had dwindled to the point they were barely surviving. Peter knew that as long they left him alone so would he leave them alone. These pigs had long lifespans. It was why they were such feared hunters. They had experience enough to know how to survive just about anything.

Peter knew that even the best warrior could be overwhelmed through sheer number. Take a look at the star wars fictional series. The Jedi were wiped out by their own clone troopers by order sixty six. And they had been hardened through war for months. But even the most talented Jedi would be overwhelmed if there were enough guns pointed at you.

But enough about that.

Now that Peter had all the gnomes under control it was time to move to the tower. For a moment Peter wondered if this was what he was supposed to get 'over with.' He had been very reluctant to kill at all. But lately he had been doing enough of that to fill rivers of blood.

XXX

**'You have learned what I wanted you to learn. You had to get over your own limitation of killing. If you didn't get over that then you would have been killed really quickly. As a reward you just regained your enhanced speed and strength back. You only need to do one thing and that is to teach the Masters of the tower all you know."**

Then there was silence. Loki's voice went silent just as quickly as it came.

Peter just shrugged. He had gotten over killing all right. Maybe it was because of Root maybe it wasn't. She certainly was bloodthirsty enough for the both of them. It was why he gave her control at times.

Peter was interrupted by a very loud alarm.

Peter blinked. "You got to be-"

Ruby... The Tower

Ruby had been busy preparing a number of private warriors just in case the tower was attacked again. The last time she had been forced to expend a large amount of magic. It didn't matter that she could recover it in a few years. If she had some sort of warriors under her command then she wouldn't need to expend any stored magic at all.

Had Ruby been a human she would have frowned. Her internal senses -those focused on the island alone- seemed to have been dulled and she had never even realized it! A check on her encrypted sensor logs confirmed it. There had been an intruder on her island for nearly six months already and she had never known!

'Why didn't I know of this?' Ruby wondered. Ruby was distracted again when she sensed her two charges calling for her. She checked her logs of the tower and realized that the noise of the alarm was loud enough to make someone deaf.

Ruby silenced the alarm with a thought.

Ruby knew that her charges would be wondering where she was but right now she had to figure this out. She reviewed the warriors she had been building since the attack on the tower. It was barely enough to patrol the tower let alone sending them out onto the island to secure it once more.

Her old warriors had long suffered a rather lethal case of death. Time had not only killed them but completely erased their existence from the earth. Not even dust particles remained due to the automatic cleaning systems. The hundreds of warriors she had under her command were gone. This meant she would have to build no, _**grow**_ new ones. And that took time.

Time that she didn't have dammit.

Ruby felt very guilty that the minions she had been given by her old master were all gone now due to her inattention and laziness. She wasn't a human. Technically she wasn't even alive. The only reason that she had been... Sleeping was because of her own boredom. She was really glad that her old master had taken _sleep_ into account. If she had to be awake the whole time she didn't know what she would have done.

Could a tower, something that wasn't really alive become insane? Nuts? Mad?

This was besides the point so Ruby tried to redirect her thoughts back to where they should go.

Perhaps if her old master **hadn't** forbidden her to command the minions outside the island they would still be active? At the time all the minions had been recalled. Since her old master had never intended to die, the move that was supposed to be temporarily became permanent. And the island was allowed to go wild.

The only reason that she could do something now was because of the attack of those treacherous Gnomes. Their race had sworn their loyalty to her old master in return for protection of persecution. Their race was very handy when you needed raw numbers. Not to mention that having minions in general was cool too.

There was a loophole in her master's order that was never supposed to be exploited. It allowed her to take command, grow and basically do anything and everything that was needed to defend the tower. Ruby knew that breeding and growing minions took time. And time was something she did not have. Much.

The ten dozen minions, a hundred and twenty of them in total were cannon fodder at best and test subjects at worst. Her minions had no sense of self preservation whatsoever. Could she afford to send what little forces she had on a mission that even her elites when she had them would have been hard pressed to complete?

"_Let's assign jobs to them and if I got any left I can assign them if need be."_ Ruby decided.

Ruby selected the toughest looking minions, assigned them in squads of five, one leader and four grunts and assigned them patrol duty in the outer wards. The tower was protected under two wards that could be compared to a bubble within a bubble.

Five squads of five minions each equalled twenty five. A hundred and twenty minus twenty five left her ninety five minions.

She picked six squads -thirty minions- and assigned them on the inner wards. That left her with sixty.

Those remaining sixty were divided into three groups of twenty. The first was assigned patrol duty in the tower itself. The second group was assigned as her reserve forces. That left her with four squads of five. A total of twenty minions.

"_I cannot send them on an offensive. I do not have the troops to defend myself and my masters properly._"' Ruby was very reluctant to waste any of her magic she had gathered over the centuries.

"_The next best thing is to secure the area outside the tower. Try and clear the tree's a little and attempt to give us at least a little bit of time before a possible attack._

She hadn't forgotten about those unknown visitors. One way or another they would come here. It was the only building above ground.

Her minions acknowledged her commands and left to to her bidding.

Now how to explain this to Master Harry and Dudley?

We switch to Peter now

Peter had been slowly getting used in having minions. Having his enhanced speed and strength back didn't hurt either. Even without his enhanced speed and raw strength he had been able to crush anyone that tried to attack him. Ordering them around for supplies and teaching them the very basics was surprisingly satisfying.

The gnomes were... Hard to put in a category when it came to intelligence. Sometimes they acted so _smart_ that he thought them as smart as a human. On other times they acted like retarded toddlers. The problem was that it was the same gnome that acted differently and he couldn't figure out what caused its intelligence to drop as it did.

Despite this odd behaviour, Peter continued to make his way towards the tower. It only took him a single month of travel before he reached the tower. If there had been roads or even a path it would have been a lot quicker. But since there were no paths, roads or anything like it they had been slowed down by a lot.


	11. Clone wars? WTF?

HP H&D 10

Time skip: four months later

_**A year after Peter crashed on the island.**_

_**Three years after H&D arrived on the island.**_

_In honour of my current favourite show (Hunter X Hunter) The island shall be called Greed Island._

X

I sort of forgot how old my characters should be by now. Because of this, the ages below are the age they **are** no matter what is implied in previous chapters. Should I make a mistake in the future, I would appreciate it if anyone would point this out to me.

_**I apologize for the inconvenience.**_

Biological age

_**Harry: 14**_

_**Dudley: 15**_

Physical age:

Harry: 8

Dudley 9

X

When Peter had offered his army to Dudley and Harry they had been suspicious. A feeling that was encouraged by Ruby. Harry and Dudley trusted Ruby so they followed her example. When Peter offered himself as their teacher in math, science and other stuff that Ruby was mostly clueless about Harry and Dudley jumped at the chance.

It was only because of Peter's likeable attitude and him being just him that they – that is Harry and Dudley – began to trust Peter.

Ruby had been worried in the beginning that Peter might have had his own agenda. But after monitoring him twenty four seven for four months in a row she had to conclude that he had only the best of intentions for her two charges. And even if he **had** a personal agenda she hadn't been able to discover it.

Because of Ruby's natural suspicion she had focussed to create a personal army for Dudley and Harry instead. And to make sure there wouldn't be any unwanted surprises she had based these warriors on Peter. Peter was after all many times stronger and faster then a regular human. Not to mention that his 'spider sense' allowed him to evade danger most of the time.

Unfortunately, Ruby only had a single 'facility' that was able to create soldiers. At one point she had commanded dozens of these facilities throughout the island but they had either been destroyed or the crystal allowing her contact had been removed or destroyed as well. The only 'bright side' was that her own facility was the biggest. It was able to produce a single platoon of warriors. Or to put it more plainly, ten squads of twelve soldiers each. Each squad had a commanding officer and a second in command with ten 'normal' soldiers.

Since she had begun production shortly after Peter had arrived four months ago, this meant she had three platoons standing by and a fourth nearly ready. But in the grand scheme of things, her 'army' was still pitiful small. At least having this many soldiers would allow her to defend the tower against an army two times its size because of the tower's natural position, defences and surroundings.

Ruby wanted desperately to send a platoon or two to other production facilities but the scouts she had send out had made it clear that they were either destroyed or in the middle of a race that had once sworn their loyalty to the island but because it had been so long had long since forgotten about said oath. This meant that they didn't acknowledge Dudley and Harry as their Master.

In the four months that Peter had stayed in the tower, he had never went beyond the guest quarters. In fact, Peter was very restricted in where he could do. He only had a single floor he could go which connected to a stairwell that led straight outside. With several doors to keep the cold out.

One thing that Peter was able to teach Harry and Dudley was science. Oh, Ruby knew science but it was very much outdated and incorrect compared to what Peter knew. That was sort of logical since this world was still in its medieval age. Electricity was unknown and personal hygiene... Ugh!

The island was still not under their control. Neither above or underground. They were literally surrounded by enemies with few if no allies at all. Peters conquest had not gone unnoticed. The other races had seen and heard what was happening and were mobilizing as well. Numerous small villages had been abandoned with their people running to the larger cities.

Not that there were many larger cities for every race, maybe two or three at the most but it complicated things by a **lot**.

To make things even more complicated there was the fact that neither Harry or Dudley was ageing as they should have in the last three years. Both boys had been here for three years. And since they had been eight (Harry) and nine (Dudley) they should have looked at least to be in their early teens. The problem was that they did **not** look like they were in their early teens. In fact, they still looked pretty much as old as they had arrived here. They had filled out, and they had gained muscles and all of that. But they hadn't aged much. That wasn't to say that didn't **didn't** age. They just did so much more slowly then was normal.

When Ruby compared her scans with those she had originally taken it was confirmed. Both boys had only aged roughly seven months give or take a few weeks. If it continued the way it was it meant that for every five years they experienced here, they would roughly age a single year in appearance. That was all there was to it.

Ruby was the one that put it very plainly.

X

"There are two reasons as far as I can tell that they haven't aged as quickly as they should." Ruby revealed.

"Firstly there is the fact that Harry and Dudley are both magical. Even though Dudley had his magical potential drained away from him by an unknown party that doesn't take away the fact that he can still do it. He has to do it through Harry but he can still do it." Ruby explained.

"I have to assume that the word they both come from have humans capable of magic. If this is true, and I don't have a reason to think otherwise, it isn't that far of a jump to assume they live longer than those that cannot do magic." Ruby reasoned.

"The next bit is a bit complicated at first so bare with me. Races capable of magic **here** age slower. If this is true here than it should be true everywhere. It's a bit of a jump but like I said, I don't have a reason to assume otherwise. Now, since Harry and Dudley have now a connection to their former world and this one, they would age twice as slowly. And since humans capable of magic can live for centuries easily on average without potions, rituals or enchanted artifacts..." Ruby trailed of to let that sink in.

And that brings me to my second reason." Ruby paused to let that sink in.

"This is just a theory mind you, but because of some experiments my old master did I think I'm right on this. Time that passes here and time that passes in your world isn't the same. I don't know how much it and I can't even guess. But combine that with the fact that you are already ageing twice as slowly..." Ruby told them.

Peter did know that his world had magic users. He had after all come into contact with the supreme sorcerer. But he had no clue if it had witches and wizards. Or Mages.

"_Thank god I'm already way past my puberty years. Poor bastards that they have to live for decades in their puberty. Oh well, better them then me I suppose."_ Peter thought privately.

X A single year later. X

X 2,0 year after Peter crashed. X

X 4,0 years after H&D arrived X

Another twelve months had passed and Ruby could finally rest at ease. Twelve months had added another eleven platoons to what she already had. Platoon number twelve was nearly ready. This gave her fifteen platoons that were now slowly expanding below the island. Ruby still hadn't told Harry or Dudley that the clone warriors even existed. She knew them well enough to know they would be uncomfortable to see dozens of near identical humans obeying their every command.

Now that she had this many soldiers at her command she knew she could no longer delay sharing it though. She could easily crush the army that Peter had brought. But Peter had long since proven his loyalty as far as she was concerned. She had continued to monitor him twenty four seven since he had entered the tower. No matter what he did she knew about it. She was the tower after all. She could watch from every conceivable direction at the same time if she wanted too.

Ruby's Tower - Greed Island.

Briefing Room.

"What is this all about Ruby?" Harry demanded. She had disturbed the strategy game that he and Dudley were playing. Their version of chess was a lot more serious though. It had real live pieces instead of pawns on a board. It taught Dudley and Harry that every action had consequences and that you shouldn't sacrifice a piece without making sure it was worth it.

"I have something to tell you and I'm very sure you won't be pleased with it." Ruby admitted.

Five minutes later Dudley and Peter had arrived as well. If Ruby had been a human she would have felt nervous.

"Ever since Peter arrived I have been working on a project that would make sure he couldn't betray us." Ruby began carefully.

"You mean other than observing me all the time?" Peter asked casually.

"You knew?"

"Of course I knew. My spider sense wasn't exactly telling me of danger, but that something was watching me. It was especially annoying when I was in the tower and less when I was outside it." Peter admitted.

"Since I believe you won't betray us, I won't be watching you all the time any more." Ruby admitted. "That doesn't mean I'll stop completely though."

"That's fine." Peter shrugged.

"Was that what you wanted to tell us?" Dudley asked Ruby. _"I'm pretty sure it's not but you can never be absolutely sure."_

"No." She admitted.

"Like I said, ever since Peter arrived I have been working on a private army. I was able to produce a number of soldier every month since... A year and four months ago more or less."

'So?' Harry questioned. "That's no big deal right?"

"That's not all of it." Ruby admitted. "I used to have dozens of these facilities all over the island but they are either damaged, destroyed or have been taken over to use by a race that has forgotten its loyalty to us. Those facilities are all capable of producing sixty soldiers every month. Only the facility directly below the tower can produce twice as many."

"I still don't see the problem." Peter admitted. Harry and Dudley nodded that they didn't see the problem with this either.

"The clones are based heavily on Peter." Ruby admitted. "Peter is faster, stronger then any normal human and his gut instinct allows him to evade danger at a moment's notice." Ruby told them.

"Which is why I used him as a base for the clone soldiers." Ruby explained.

"Right now I have roughly fifteen platoons ready. One platoon as one hundred and twenty soldiers divided into twelve squads of twelve soldiers each. One commanding officer, the second in command followed by ten regular soldiers of various specialities."

Seeing the curious looks, Ruby offered a bit extra on that. "While they are clones they still have some personality. That means that they can have their own speciality. And in most cases each squad has members of various specialities. Sometimes they don't until they decide what they like to do best."

Now that this was explained, Ruby went on to how she had deployed what she had available.

"Platoon one and two are dedicated solely as guards for the underground entrance that leads into the tower." Ruby told them. "When I have more that will rise to five platoons in total."

"Why so many?" Dudley asked curiously.

"Because right now we are outnumbered on the island by the various races on the island." Ruby revealed. "Many live on the island as proven by Peter's conquest's. And many others live within the catacombs underground. Should they ever unite against us then even two hundred and forty soldiers would be unable to hold them off. Even if we have all advantages that a defensive position could offer."

"But why?" Dudley asked again. "Why would they attack us? Didn't you tell us that they were allowed to settle here because they were hunted down by the races on the continent?"

'Yes.' Ruby agreed. "But they have forgotten about those agreements. And it was never put onto paper or in any form of contract for that matter. So we couldn't prove it even if they were willing to listen. Those small populations have grown to have small kingdoms. Each has a decent army. Alone we would be able to handle them. But combined they would overwhelm even the powerful defences that this tower has." Ruby explained.

"Anyway, on top of those two platoons there are another two that are solely dedicated to back the first two up. They switch with each other every few weeks so they can rest. That leaves eleven platoons. Six platoons are dedicated to take back and hold the closest clone producing facilities. The remaining five are kept as reserve forces and to replace the soldiers that have died on duty."

Peter had listened to the conversation with growing dread. _"Not only has she copied me without even ASKING me but she copied me eighteen hundred times? And the way she's talking she doesn't intend to stop any time soon!"_

When he finally spoke up, his voice was trembling with controlled anger. Neither Harry or Dudley had ever seen Peter this angry before.

"Are you telling me there are roughly one thousand and eighteen hundred copies of me out there?" Peter demanded incredulously.

'Yes.'

That blunt answer didn't do much to help his temper.

"And you aren't planning on stopping any time soon are you?"

"Of course not. Don't you realize how valuable those clones are?" Ruby demanded. "They are stronger and faster then a normal human. They can heal damn quickly too! I assume that you want something in return?" Ruby asked calmly.

Peter was quiet for a while. "Have I earned your trust?" he asked Ruby, Harry and Dudley.

"You have." Ruby agreed.

"What she said." Harry muttered.

"Seconded." Dudley agreed.

"Then I want command of the clones." Peter told them.

"I can't stop you. But I can teach them what I know." Peter continued.

"Are we agreed?" Ruby asked to nobody in particular.

'Yes.' Dudley nodded.

'Seconded.' Harry concurred.

'It is agreed then.' Peter said simply.

"I will guide you to the command centre below the tower after I informed the clones that you will command them. I have to warn you though that both genders will be present."

"W-wait what?" Peter stuttered in surprise.

"Surely you didn't think that it would be only males did you?" Ruby asked with amusement.

Peter just shut his mouth. He was too surprised and shocked to form any words.

Ruby was about to continue teasing him when an internal alarm only she could hear distracted her.

"Excuse me for a moment." Ruby muttered. With a pop her illusion self vanished from the room and reappeared in her 'private' command centre.

_'Damn, Damn Dammit!'_ Ruby cursed.

"_Why did those pesky descendants have to find that old contract **now** of all times? Why couldn't they wait for another few months?"_

She had known that it would happen sooner or later. And even though she had five platoons doing nothing except sending replacements, she couldn't afford to send many of them! And what were a mere one hundred and twenty men compared to thousands?

Ruby checked the source of the alarm just to make sure it was what she thought it was. She couldn't ignore the contract and neither could her masters.

The history of the contract was not as complicated you would think. Her master had been injured after fighting in an important battle after he had been hired as a Mage for hire by the best paying faction. He had been found injured by a neutral party and they had taken care of him. In return they wanted his assistance should they ever come under attack.

Her master had of course agreed and had created a magical contract. The only catch was that the contract could only be found when they truly required it. The contract had several clauses that her master or his descendants would do everything in their power to protect the neutral country.

"_I already assigned the bare minimum to defence, offensive and the reserves. I just can't miss anything!"_ Technically she was wrong. The platoons she had assigned to take back control had taken two posts two months ago. But they had been heavily damaged and unable to produce anything for many months to come. In a perfect world she would have been able to repair them in a moment but that wouldn't be happening.

"_I have no choice but to reveal this contract my old master made. I have to make sure they understand that it could only be found if they really needed our help. But even they won't take two children and one adult seriously. That means I **have **to send enough forces with them to make an impact. Forces that I can't really miss!"_

Unless of course she used the five platoons she had as pure reserves. For now an attack on the tower was unlikely so she could remove the two backup platoons to add to the five.

Eight hundred and forty soldiers would hopefully be enough to take them seriously.

X

End

X

Next time: we go with Naruto and see what's been happening to him!


End file.
